View allAll Photos Tagged differences,
I am getting quite tired of seeing people texture their weapons with external programs such as Photoshop and Gimp, and just overlaying a simple texture over their weapon.
There's so many things that are wrong with that, and it's just sad.
I've textured over my weapon with a simple wood texture, and on the left, I put about 30 minutes into just erasing things, and that's it. On the right, I put about 30 seconds into it just by repeating the texture across my weapon. People, if you are going to texture your weapon, borrow someone else's texture or put some time into it.
tl;dr: Bolts should't have textures.
Edited in Photoshop for the shitty texturing.
Seen here at Arriva's Tavistock Street, Dunstable depot on a cold morning in February 2001 are several different vehicles. A native Alexander bodied Leyland Olympian G657 UPP is seen being run up for a day's service whilst alongside an ex-County Bus Leyland Lynx H258 GEV and a Routemaster WLT 966 are seen stored. The reasons for the Routemaster being there are not clear although photographic evidence on Flickr indicates that it has been re-registered LSL 827 and converted to a non-psv computer bus by the following year.
Milan, Via Dante
Photo Exposition en-plein-air
Saggezze dell'Umanità - Wisdoms
Daniel & Olivier Olivier Föllmi
I was getting ready to test my Butterball Indoor Turkey Fryer, I am testing it with a five pound chicken and I am using Canola Oil. Jimmy Dean was not to excited about the prep work. But Link and Frank camped out in the kitchen for the entire time.
The poor girl, seen wearing colourful embroidered lehenga-choli, is balancing her pot to bring water, while the well-off girl in salwar-kameez is with a hand bag
Differently pigmented Pacific coralroots, one yellowish, the other pinkish. (Coralloriza mertensiana).
I find the dramatic difference between inside and outside interesting. It certainly mirrors the modern society and the schism between the haves and the have- nots.
Yeah I have heard this phrase too. If only people thought about what they say, or write it out perhaps. That might bring them to the realization that ENGLISH SUCKS.
This isn't the point of my picture though. The boy on the right in my brother. The "boy" on the left is the brother of a very good friend of mine. As you might have noticed, they have quite different views of the world. I tried once to bend down and walk through a crowd... being short would suck. I am 6'2''. I don't understand what it's like to have to jump up or use a stool to reach the top of my cupboards, or have to walk around a wire fence rather than over. I do know how hard it is fit into a smart car, and try to sew your torn shoe together with fingers as big as a brat...
Everyone is different. What if we were the same? Would there be anger? Would there be awkward moments.....amazement, rich/poor.....or love?
I have been in a philosophical mood lately...most of that due to the new Blue October CD that was released. Music can make me feel any emotion, even the ones I try to forget.
Don't let the differences between people be the reason you hate or bully. Make it be the reason you love and learn. That just sounds like a better use of time doesn't it?
"‘Sweet Temptation’ was hand formed by my three young children who already display individual differences in the ability to resist temptation (demonstrated by the varying number of sweets consumed during the making of this image!).
The ability to exhibit self-control in an environment abundant with temptation may be a key factor in preventing over eating and obesity, with tendencies toward impulsivity and immediacy making this very difficult for some people.
Discovering how to measure the exact form of impulsivity that underlies over eating can inform us of the best strategies to help currently over-weight people enhance self-control, and focus preventative measures so that they can target vulnerable individuals at a young age.
My research not only excites me intellectually but is vital to me as a parent responsible for the long term health of my children."
Het verschil tussen arm en rijk is groot aan de Bulgaarse kust, al valt het op deze foto nog enigszins mee. De huizen daarachter zijn nog niet helemaal af, maar er wonen al wel mensen in. Er staat nog een Audi S8 geparkeerd (die waren in de uitverkoop geloof ik) en daarvoor liggen de mensen te zonnen aan het zwembad.
Sunny Beach / Slanchev Byrag / Слънчев бряг, Bulgarije
World famous tenor Russell Watson dropped in to meet a group of young people at Swinton Police Station back in 2002.
He gave up his time to meet one of the groups taking part in Greater Manchester Police's "Make A Difference" challenge.
As part of the scheme the group would undertake a project to improve community life in their area.
The scheme was also designed to develop life skills and help build self confidence.
Russell was raised in nearby Irlam and was only to happy to lend his support.
Russell rose to fame a few years earlier - after several years singing in clubs - when he was asked to sing the National Anthem at the Rugby League Challenge Cup Final at Wembley Stadium and to sing a number of songs at the 1999 UEFA Champions League Final in Manchester United's treble winning season.
He continues - despite two major health scares in the recent years - to be a hugely popular singer on the wold stage to this day.
From the collection of the Greater Manchester Police Museum.
To find out more about Greater Manchester Police please visit our website www.gmp.police.uk
You should call 101, the new national non-emergency number, to report crime and other concerns that do not require an emergency response.
Always call 999 in an emergency, such as when a crime is in progress, violence is being used or threatened or where there is danger to life.
You can also call anonymously with information about crime to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111. Crimestoppers is an independent charity who will not want your name, just your information. Your call will not be traced or recorded and you do not have to go to court or give a statement.
inspired by photos like this one from a lot of sports publications and old school edgerton multiflash.
www.flickr.com/photos/joseph_gurney/3504398524/in/pool-se...
some sort of video effect that does in real time? or after the fact on a shot? this is available already and i'm wasting my time?
trying out a couple simple filters for with open frameworks video grabber. hoping to transfer to movies to avoid the problems with the isight camera autobalancing itself quite frequently.
Intel's Small Things Challenge is a campaign based on the premise that every small action can make a big difference to ensure quality education and economic opportunity for all.
Building upon Intels 40 years of active efforts to improve education, the "Small Things Challenge" aims to raise awareness and money for two of the worlds most pressing challenges -- increasing access to quality education and fostering economic development in emerging countries. Intel is working with Save the Children and Kiva to improve education and economic development everywhere. Small things can have a big impact.
We challenge you to join us in becoming a part of the solution. Your help will make a difference.
Get more information about Intel's Small Things Challenge at: www.smallthingschallenge.com
Learn how Save the Children is working with Intel to help improve education for children at: www.savethechildren.org/corporate/intel/
Bid on cool gear, autographed by Counting Crows and Maroon 5 at The Small Things Challenge Auction. Proceeds go to Save the Children and Kiva. stores.ebay.com/Small-Things-Challenge
The beveled gear (whose shaft is pointing down) rotates the stack of cams which are the primary mechanism to determine what moves when... the "micro-code" to use a modern analogy
This is a photograph from the 13th annual running of the Tom Brennan Memorial 5KM Road Race and Fun Run which was held on Furze Road, Phoenix Park, Chapelizod, Dublin, Ireland on New Year's Day Monday 1st January 2018 at 12:00. The race route is a two loop course which starts and finishes on the Furze Road in the middle of the Phoenix Park. Participants follow a clockwise, right-handed, looped route around Furze Road, Ordnance Survey and Chesterfield Avenue. The loop course is also another difference of this race from traditional 5KM road racing. The weather on New Year's Day in the Phoenix Park is always unpredictable and today was no different. A particularly strong headwind into the faces of participants along Furze road (between 2KM and 3KM) made this particular section tough going for everyone. There was also a particularly cold icy feel in the air. However several hundred runners, joggers and walkers shook off the effects of Christmas celebrations to take part. The route itself is flat without any noticeable undulations. This year's race had one of the biggest field of participants in its long and well established history.
The race is organised and promoted by the local athletics club Liffey Valley Athletic Club who are based in Islandbridge, Dublin 8 and have a catchment area around this part of Dublin city. The race itself commemorates the memory and contribution of former club member Tom Brennan who won the National Cross Country Championships in 1975 in UCD Belfield at the age of 24 years. A special commemorative perpetual trophy is presented to the winner of the race every year. The race is also of particular interest to those runners, joggers and walkers who are not necessarily involved in the competitive side of road racing. Annually the race is the first of a series of races in Dublin city which make up the Lord Mayor’s 5 Alive Challenge. This initiative by Dublin City Council is now in its sixth year and several hundred runners, joggers and walkers volunteer to take part in five of Dublin’s most popular road races. Dublin City Council makes an open call for people to register to be a part of the programme in autumn every year. The Liffey Valley Club and many other volunteers work hard to make this a very successful event. Undertaking a road race event in any location is a challenging task. However the Phoenix Park presents a unique challenge in terms of traffic flow around this part of Dublin and general logistics. Despite this these efforst by the host club are greatly appreciated as is evident by the turn out every year. It provides a splendid opening of the New Year for runners of all abilities. It is also a fitting 'official' start to the new calendar year of road racing in the Dublin and North Leinster region.
This photograph is part of a large set of photographs which was taken at the race. The complete set is available on our Flickr page at [https://www.flickr.com/photos/peterm7/albums/72157667970479679]
Timing and Event Management was provided by the Irish company MyRunResults.com. The results from today's race can be found on their website in the results section [www.myrunresults.com/]
USEFUL LINKS:
Our photographs from the Tom Brennan Memorial Road Race 2017: www.flickr.com/photos/peterm7/albums/72157676887245971
Our photographs from the Tom Brennan Memorial Road Race 2016: www.flickr.com/photos/peterm7/albums/72157662953593456
Our photographs from the Tom Brennan Memorial Road Race 2015: www.flickr.com/photos/peterm7/albums/72157649636870307
Our photographs from the Tom Brennan Memorial Road Race 2014: www.flickr.com/photos/peterm7/sets/72157639246897663
Our photographs from the Tom Brennan Memorial Road Race 2013: www.flickr.com/photos/peterm7/sets/72157632403740910/
Our photographs from the Tom Brennan Memorial Road Race 2012: www.flickr.com/photos/peterm7/sets/72157628663656621/
Our photographs from the Tom Brennan Memorial Road Race 2011: www.flickr.com/photos/peterm7/sets/72157625720306412/
Liffey Valley AC on Twitter: www.twitter.com/liffeyvalleyac
Liffey Valley AC on Instagram: www.instagram.com/liffeyvalleyac/
The Liffey Valley AC Website Homepage: www.liffeyvalleyac.com/
The Liffey Valley AC Facebook Page (might require Facebook logon to access): www.facebook.com/liffeyvalleyac
Location of the Phoenix Park on OpenStreetMap: www.openstreetmap.org/?mlat=53.3587&mlon=-6.3362#map=...
GPS Garmin Trace of the 5KM Road Race Route: connect.garmin.com/activity/661573721
USING OUR PHOTOGRAPHS - A QUICK GUIDE AND ANSWERS TO YOUR QUESTIONS
Can I use these photographs directly from Flickr on my social media account(s)?
Yes - of course you can! Flickr provides several ways to share this and other photographs in this Flickr set. You can share directly to: email, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, Tumblr, LiveJournal, and Wordpress and Blogger blog sites. Your mobile, tablet, or desktop device will also offer you several different options for sharing this photo page on your social media outlets.
BUT..... Wait there a minute....
We take these photographs as a hobby and as a contribution to the running community in Ireland. We do not charge for our photographs. Our only "cost" is that we request that if you are using these images: (1) on social media sites such as Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, Twitter,LinkedIn, Google+, VK.com, Vine, Meetup, Tagged, Ask.fm,etc or (2) other websites, blogs, web multimedia, commercial/promotional material that you must provide a link back to our Flickr page to attribute us or acknowledge us as the original photographers.
This also extends to the use of these images for Facebook profile pictures. In these cases please make a separate wall or blog post with a link to our Flickr page. If you do not know how this should be done for Facebook or other social media please email us and we will be happy to help suggest how to link to us.
I want to download these pictures to my computer or device?
You can download this photographic image here directly to your computer or device. This version is the low resolution web-quality image. How to download will vary slight from device to device and from browser to browser. Have a look for a down-arrow symbol or the link to 'View/Download' all sizes. When you click on either of these you will be presented with the option to download the image. Remember just doing a right-click and "save target as" will not work on Flickr.
I want get full resolution, print-quality, copies of these photographs?
If you just need these photographs for online usage then they can be used directly once you respect their Creative Commons license and provide a link back to our Flickr set if you use them. For offline usage and printing all of the photographs posted here on this Flickr set are available free, at no cost, at full image resolution.
Please email petermooney78 AT gmail DOT com with the links to the photographs you would like to obtain a full resolution copy of. We also ask race organisers, media, etc to ask for permission before use of our images for flyers, posters, etc. We reserve the right to refuse a request.
In summary please remember when requesting photographs from us - If you are using the photographs online all we ask is for you to provide a link back to our Flickr set or Flickr pages. You will find the link above clearly outlined in the description text which accompanies this photograph. Taking these photographs and preparing them for online posting takes a significant effort and time. We are not posting photographs to Flickr for commercial reasons. If you really like what we do please spread the link around your social media, send us an email, leave a comment beside the photographs, send us a Flickr email, etc. If you are using the photographs in newspapers or magazines we ask that you mention where the original photograph came from.
I would like to contribute something for your photograph(s)?
Many people offer payment for our photographs. As stated above we do not charge for these photographs. We take these photographs as our contribution to the running community in Ireland. If you feel that the photograph(s) you request are good enough that you would consider paying for their purchase from other photographic providers or in other circumstances we would suggest that you can provide a donation to any of the great charities in Ireland who do work for Cancer Care or Cancer Research in Ireland.
Let's get a bit technical: We use Creative Commons Licensing for these photographs
We use the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License for all our photographs here in this photograph set. What does this mean in reality?
The explaination is very simple.
Attribution- anyone using our photographs gives us an appropriate credit for it. This ensures that people aren't taking our photographs and passing them off as their own. This usually just mean putting a link to our photographs somewhere on your website, blog, or Facebook where other people can see it.
ShareAlike – anyone can use these photographs, and make changes if they like, or incorporate them into a bigger project, but they must make those changes available back to the community under the same terms.
Above all what Creative Commons aims to do is to encourage creative sharing. See some examples of Creative Commons photographs on Flickr: www.flickr.com/creativecommons/
I ran in the race - but my photograph doesn't appear here in your Flickr set! What gives?
As mentioned above we take these photographs as a hobby and as a voluntary contribution to the running community in Ireland. Very often we have actually ran in the same race and then switched to photographer mode after we finished the race. Consequently, we feel that we have no obligations to capture a photograph of every participant in the race. However, we do try our very best to capture as many participants as possible. But this is sometimes not possible for a variety of reasons:
►You were hidden behind another participant as you passed our camera
►Weather or lighting conditions meant that we had some photographs with blurry content which we did not upload to our Flickr set
►There were too many people - some races attract thousands of participants and as amateur photographs we cannot hope to capture photographs of everyone
►We simply missed you - sorry about that - we did our best!
You can email us petermooney78 AT gmail DOT com to enquire if we have a photograph of you which didn't make the final Flickr selection for the race. But we cannot promise that there will be photograph there. As alternatives we advise you to contact the race organisers to enquire if there were (1) other photographs taking photographs at the race event or if (2) there were professional commercial sports photographers taking photographs which might have some photographs of you available for purchase. You might find some links for further information above.
Don't like your photograph here?
That's OK! We understand!
If, for any reason, you are not happy or comfortable with your picture appearing here in this photoset on Flickr then please email us at petermooney78 AT gmail DOT com and we will remove it as soon as possible. We give careful consideration to each photograph before uploading.
I want to tell people about these great photographs!
Great! Thank you! The best link to spread the word around is probably http://www.flickr.com/peterm7/sets
Just goes to show, one person or petal can make a difference! Seen at St. Matthew's Church in Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada. (10-09-22-5264)
Differences in the determinants of health across the span of the future DC Bridge Park, connecting Wards 6 and Ward 8 of Washington, DC, USA
I will be walking with the team behind the park and other health experts on November 13, 2013, join us : www.eventbrite.com/event/8678287993 , More info www.tedeytan.com/2013/10/18/16789
----
See blog post: Mapping the Determinants of Health across the span of the future DC 11th Street Bridge Park | Ted Eytan, MD
Based on the wonderful design made by Ixpia for Akamai, In created my own take on the legendary master of wisdom. The body-frame was based off, but not taken directly from the original. Enjoy.
Tutorial for the original can be found here:
Location: Tsim Sha Tsui MTR Station, Hong Kong
Leica IIIg
Cosina Voigtländer Super wide-Heliar 15mm f/4.5 Aspherical LTM
Arista Premium 400
A boy raised in the depression to learn the difference between want and need.
A young man who led many to battle in the Pacific
A man who loved his country and worked to strengthen its politics
A man who was who loved my mother and raised eight children
A man who held on to life, long after others would have rested and lived to love 18 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren.
My Father, Thomas Edwin Adams, June 28, 1920 – May 13, 2010
I love you dad!
Thomas Edwin Adams, Jr. passed away peacefully at his daughter''s home in Centreville, Virginia on May 13, 2010 with his family at his bedside.
Son to Thomas Edwin Adams, Sr. and Agnes Kennedy Adams, Tom Adams was born on June 28, 1920 in Washington, D.C. A proud native Virginian, he graduated at age 15 from Fairfax High School class of 1936. He was an excellent athlete and an accomplished tenor. Married in 1942, he was the devoted and loving husband of 44 years to Mary Ellen (Estes) Adams, who passed on Oct.19, 1987.
Tom Adams graduated from American University in Washington, D.C., with a B.A. in History and Government in 1946. He attended Washington & Lee University Law School in Lexington, VA. A veteran of WWII, Tom Adams received the Bronze Star for Bravery and the Purple Heart while serving in the Pacific campaign with the 17th Infantry Regiment as a platoon leader and company commander. During the Korean conflict he served in the 2nd Battalion of the 15th Infantry, 3rd Division as a rifle platoon leader. Before retiring from the U.S. Army in 1967, Lt. Col. Adams served as legal officer for the 15th Infantry Regiment in Fort Benning, GA, as Boards and Investigations Officer at Ft. Myer in Arlington, VA and as military historian at the Pentagon.
Tom Adams pursued a second career on Capitol Hill as the Legislative and Special Assistant to U.S. Congressman Joel T. Broyhill (10th Congressional District) of Virginia and for U.S. Congressman W.C. (Bill) Wampler Sr. (9th Congressional District). He retired from politics in 1984 following his service on the staff of the U.S. House Agriculture Committee. Tom Adams worked to pass legislation to create and fund the Washington Metro rail system and to fund the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine. He was the principal staff architect of the agriculture title of the 1977 Food and Agriculture Act. Tom Adams'' retirement after 42 years of Federal service appeared in the Feb. 1, 1984 U.S. Congressional Record.
Tom and Mary Adams retired to Highland County, Virginia to start another chapter of their lives enjoying grandchildren and great grandchildren, their children, and many family and friends of the surrounding mountains and Shenandoah Valley.
Tom Adams will be remembered as a Virginian, an American, a devote husband and father, and as a man that instilled character and comfort in those he touched.
Tom Adams is survived by his eight children: Ellen Price, Susan Stanhope, Thomas Edwin, Laura Lewis, Elizabeth Kennedy, Samuel Glenn, Joseph Estes, and James Benjamin, 18 grandchildren, 12 great grandchildren, and siblings Robert L. Adams, Betty A. Baker, and Joan A. Vipperman. Tom Adams was also pre-deceased by loving brothers Bert and John, and sister Anne Gresham.
Keyvan Ghavami, Co-Founder and President, Act On Your Future, Switzerland speaking at the Annual Meeting 2017 of the World Economic Forum in Davos, January 19, 2017
Copyright by World Economic Forum / Walter Duerst
Powerful speech by Maria Zaharova on Germany's decision to send Leopard tanks to Ukraine, posted by IEarlGrey Mike Jones:
There's a big difference between what General Milley said that Russia had 100,000 soldiers killed or wounded and what Ursula von der Leyen said that Ukraine had 100,000 soldiers killed.
Retired Col Douglas Macgregor and former US WMD inspector Scott Ritter, among others, have said many times that the Russians have no problem replenishing weapons. This article just confirms that.
www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/the-west-is-losing-weapons-p...
The West is losing weapons production race to Russia, NATO ally says
Russia’s defense industry has “almost doubled” its prewar ammunition production rates, according to a senior NATO member defense official who estimated that Ukrainian forces could face as many as 10,000 incoming rounds per day.
“Russia can still manufacture a lot of dumb bombs,” the Estonian defense minister’s permanent secretary, Kusti Salm, told reporters in Washington this week. "And dumb bombs are also 152 [mm] artillery that does the most damage in the battlefield. ... Shooting 10,000 artillery [rounds] a day makes a lot of damage.”
That sobering thought punctuated a wider warning that Russia has vast resources available to conduct a protracted war in Ukraine despite sustaining heavy losses over the past year. And that assessment raised a corollary misgiving that Western defense companies have not taken the necessary steps to provide adequate supplies to Ukraine while preparing for future threats.
“The attitude from the industry [is] that ‘we will only wake up in the morning when you put the contract on the table,’” said Salm. “Our stocks are getting more depleted. So we're not only on the uphill trajectory here with the trend. We are still going down. It needs to be reversed.”
US TANKS WILL TAKE ‘MANY MONTHS’ TO REACH UKRAINE, WHITE HOUSE SAYS
That assessment complicates the picture of Western efficiency and Russian military incompetence that appeared over the last year. Russia’s logistical preparations for the war have attracted scorn in Western public discourse, dating back to the basic failures that thwarted the Kremlin’s plan to overthrow the Ukrainian government in the first days of the war.
Yet Salm, a senior defense official for one of the only NATO allies that share a border with Russia, acknowledged that “mobilization has had an effect and the line has been stabilized,” whatever the shortcomings of the mobilization process. And he expressed displeasure with those who underestimate Moscow.
“It has annoyed myself and most of my colleagues since the beginning, the ridiculing of the mobilization effort,” Salm said. “If you're a nation who can mobilize 300,000 from the street in a few weeks, in five weeks to get into the trenches — this is an effort that I don't think any Western nation can pull off just from scratch. ... There is also an element of quality in the quantity in itself.”
Some of those mobilized troops were thrown into the front lines with little or no training. Some conscripts were killed within 10 days of receiving the notifications that they would be drafted into the war, according to their bereaved families. The efficacy of those forces, whatever their flaws, points to a possible future in which the United States and its allies struggle to keep pace with Moscow’s capacity to bring power to bear in the war, even assuming that Russia has taken “significantly over 100,000” casualties, as U.S. Army Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, estimated in mid-January.
“It's not actually very much if you have 30 million people in the mobilization reserve; you can afford it,” Salm said, referring to Russia’s losses. “And losing 1,400 tanks is a lot of tanks ... but it's bearable if you have done 10,000 in the stocks. Even if you can make one working [tank] out of three, still you have many times more tanks than European allies.”
It’s difficult to predict the battlefield impact of those potential reserves, he added. NATO allies recognize that Russian officials showed foresight in at least some areas prior to the mobilization drive.
“All mobilized soldiers have the new digital uniforms — all of them,” the Estonian defense official observed. “It means that their military was prepared for these numbers. Mobilized soldiers haven't showed up in Second World War uniforms. It means that they were prepared. They knew. They know what they’re doing.”
Russia always has lurked as a far larger military power than Ukraine, but the imbalance has been equalized somewhat by the nature of the conflict. An attacking force needs to be three times larger than the defenders in order to succeed, according to conventional military wisdom. Ukrainian forces also have received Western weaponry that is of higher quality than the systems available to the Russians, culminating most recently in Germany’s support for a multinational initiative to donate about 80 modern Leopard 2 main battle tanks to Ukraine.
That decision sets the stage for the tanks to arrive on the battlefield in the spring — or roughly a year after Ukrainian officials and some NATO allies began to plead for the transfers to take place.
“The allies are getting to the realization that it’s going to be a longer war. It's going to be an extremely costly war,” Salm said. “And, in order to manage this strategy, you need to have an end goal. ... The reason why we are not there, I guess, is the cost in itself, the fact that a lot of the ammunition stocks have been depleted in Europe. It’s a problem in itself that you need to deal with.”
A course correction will require the political will to make investments that dwarf the current outlays in the U.S. and Europe.
“The price tag, we know, is going to be a large one,” he said, “probably much larger than the bills that the Congress have put forward and definitely much higher than European allies have put forward.”
_____
But it's not just NATO running low on weapons and munitions. The U.S. is too! Is the purpose for articles like this one an attempt to increase the $816 trillion defense budget? Using drones is nothing new for the U.S. military. President Obama had used drones to kill Al Qaeda, the Taliban and ISIS, along with thousands of innocent civilians we call collateral damage. See www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/whos-next-to-borrow-fr...
www.defenseone.com/ideas/2023/02/we-dont-have-missiles-st...
We Don't Have the Missiles to Stop China. Time For Drone Swarms
Despite all the calls to boost production, the U.S. military will be short of key missiles for at least two years. It needs ways to win with what it has now.
The war in Ukraine made plain several well-known challenges with precision weapons: they are expensive, rely on complicated supply chains, and take time to build. With Russia’s invasion stretching into its second year and military leaders warning of a looming war with China, analysts, Congress, and defense officials are all arguing for dramatically increased spending on the sophisticated long-range missiles needed for war in the Indo-Pacific.
This is a failure of both analysis and imagination by the world’s largest and most expensive defense establishment.
Decades of funding and policy decisions have led to a “right-sized” defense industry that can produce precision-guided missiles only at a peacetime replacement rate. Efforts to accumulate more PGMs could draw on the excellent recommendations made by recent studies: multi-year purchases, better management of existing stocks, and, yes, increased spending. Yet the fundamental limits remain: rocket fuel, explosives, microelectronics, and skilled technicians are all in short supply. Ramping up production of key missiles, therefore, will take two years or more.
That is time the U.S. military may not have. If Chinese leaders decide military action is necessary to achieve their goals of Indo-Pacific hegemony and a subjugated Taiwan, they are unlikely to wait for the Pentagon to rebuild its weapons stockpiles, field new B-21 bombers, and establish widespread firebases throughout southwest Japan and the Philippines. An invasion of Taiwan may not be imminent, but China’s President Xi may perceive a window opening during which he can change the status quo through a range of operations from blockades or quarantines to cyber attacks, island occupations, and bombardment.
The defense establishment must not pretend that simply opening the money spigots will provide the missiles that will enable the U.S. military to fight the way it wants to against the People’s Liberation Army. Instead, U.S. forces must adopt new concepts and tactics that can win with the weapons and systems they can field this year and next.
The war in Ukraine, recent operations by Iran, and the war in Nagorno-Karabakh offer some ideas. Faced with shortages in sophisticated PGMs due to sanctions or attrition, combatants in each of these conflicts turned to unmanned systems that help fill the gaps in some innovative ways.
As Russia ran short of many of its best long-range weapons, it began to mount large-scale strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure that combined cheap and numerous drones with cutting-edge Kinzhal hypersonic missiles. By overwhelming Ukrainian air defenses with drones, Russian attackers hoped to improve the missiles’ survivability and allow a smaller salvo to be more destructive.
A similar approach has been used by Iran and its Houthi proxies. Constrained by sanctions to building simple missiles and drones, they have nevertheless mounted strikes during the last half-decade in Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and the Persian Gulf.
The U.S. military is coming around to the idea of using uncrewed vehicles to protect and enhance smaller long-range missile salvos. Programs like the Air Force’s Skyborg and Army’s Air-Launched Effects are intended in part to build drones that can jam or confuse air defenses or precisely guide missiles to where they can do the most damage.
Although they receive less attention and funding than the PGMs they support, systems such as Air-Launched Effects and Skyborg could represent the fastest route to a more lethal U.S. force. By making each missile more accurate and survivable, these uncrewed vehicles could help stretch strained U.S. and allied magazines. Based on existing or modified vehicles, they could be fielded at scale in the time it takes a new missile production line to come on service.
Or U.S. forces can forgo the missiles entirely. Over the last two years, Ukraine, Russia, Israel, and Iran have all used long-endurance drones to strike enemy bases, infrastructure, and ships. Using everything from DJI quadcopters with hand grenades to Shahed-136 suicide drones carrying 200 pounds of explosives, these militaries have circumvented opponents’ air defenses through a mixture of slow speed, low radar signature, and numbers.
New technologies made these new tactics possible. Commercial automation software and microelectronics from the telecommunications, automobile, and shipping industries contribute. But more important is the emergence of commercial mission-planning and command-and-control software that can orchestrate drone and missile operations to avoid defenses, locate concealed targets, and maximize impact on the enemy.
An added benefit of commercially-derived hardware and software is in mobilization. The inability of the U.S. defense industrial base to surge production for wartime has been analyzed, described, and bemoaned during the last decade. But by shifting more of its force design toward commercially-derived technologies, the U.S. military could create the potential for commercial mobilization on a scale not seen since World War II.
With a narrowing window to field a force that can thwart Chinese aggression in the Western Pacific, the Pentagon cannot afford to wait for the defense industry, evolved for peacetime efficiency, to build a military that can fight like defense planners want to fight. Instead, the DoD needs to reimagine how it can fight using the military it can get. Our adversaries and allies are showing a path to success. The Pentagon, and its supporters in Congress, need to start running toward it.
Bryan Clark is a Director of the Hudson Institute Center for Defense Concepts and Technology..