davebarrack patreon

Grrl Power #1029 - Sticker shock

🕑 Added 2022-03-07 11:00:06 +0000 UTC

Comments

Eric Loken

One teeny tiny problem with Deus plan.... all US military gear has to be built in the US. It's a dual purpose law to make sure Congress Critters get to ensure money is being spent in their constituencies, and to reduce the chance of a potentially hostile nation sabotaging US military hardware. Components can - and do - come from overseas, but weapons. ships, vehicles, and aircraft have to be built in the US. There have been large concerns about even components coming from overseas as there have been multiple cases of substandard components ending up in the supply chain because of foreign companies cutting corners to increase profit (not that an American company wouldn't do the same thing, but they can be stepped on easier if they try it in the US instead of China). There would also be a HUGE concern that anything coming from Deus would be able to be disabled at his whim. And frankly, with Deus actions, the odds of him becoming a supplier to the US military is about the same as the US military deciding to buy from Russia right now. There is also another problem with having a single aircraft that costs so much, well two actually. 1, You are automatically limited on how many you can have. An F35A costs roughly $80 million, you can have 25 of those for 1 of these. Which means that there are 24 places the super fighter *isn't* that an F35A could be. This is a very significant problem, if you don't have enough equipment to go around then you can't do what you need to do, and your enemy just makes a point of being where you aren't (basic Sun Tzu). 2. If someone does kill it, or there is an accident, HOLY SHIT does that hurt the budget. You can - theoretically - build something that is nigh indestructible, but if it costs so damn much that you can have two dozen of something that is not as indestructible, but otherwise almost as good, it is a fairly easy decision. As a means of example, the Russian's much vaunted T14 tank which is supposed to be super survivable (debatable) costs about twice what a T90 does, and so the T14 is just this side of cancelled because it is so expensive (part of the problem with the Russian military, their GDP is less than Canada's, but they have 4 times the population and a WAY larger military - they simply don't have enough money to properly maintain and replace gear, and that is before you factor in massive corruption). Or, as a more basic example. I had a pair of $200 sunglasses, really nice. And then they were lost and stolen (long story). I then bought a pair of $20 sunglasses, not as good, but they were almost as good, and if they were lost, big deal - and in fact, nobody goes out of their way to steal $20 sunglasses. So I could get something that costs 1/10 as much and is 80% as good, and not worry about if I lost them, or go the other way. I have stuck with $20 sunglasses since then. And what's more, with Maxima and Halo... who cares about a $2 billion fighter that has a shield? If it becomes a problem, they send either of those in, whether it is a need for something that can shrug off enemy attacks, or punch through an enemy shield on their $2 billion fighter. Supers actually kinda throw the entire conventional military model out the window. And if the US is concerned about Deus selling them to whoever... in this scenario that makes him a target, not a business partner. Lastly, I'm sure Dabbler or Cora can suggest the US do the same thing that Deus did, just buy some fabbers and do the same thing he's doing. POOF, his advantage disappears just like that.

MrHHH

Air force 1 would definitely buy it. And if they had money left over, they'd probably spend it on AWACs or other flying command and control craft.

FeyOne

The easiest way to handle all the supposed problems about the force-field is for it to be reactive. Whatever it is that powers it doesn't need to have a full power field up 100% of the time, it needs to have a weak field up all the time. The field, itself, could theoretically receive any incoming energy, (in any form), and redirect that into it's own structure. Additionally, it could be configured to allow for energy below certain thresholds to simply pass. So, when just flying around, air would go through just fine Same with radio-waves, normal light, etc. However, any sort of energy beam that crosses a certain threshold in power? It gets caught by the field and directed into helping power the field, itself. Same principle with strict mass objects except the threshold has to do with the combined kinetic energy of the mass, (e.g. the combination of the mass and velocity of the mass relative to the field). So, air molecules traveling below whatever the safe Mach rating for the aircraft is? The pass straight through the field. Bullets that come even close to the craft's armor rating or even a random brick thrown at the craft? When the field detects them there is plenty of time for it to respond to the incursion and stop the incoming mass, (after all, mass based threats are traveling SLOWLY compared to the reaction speeds of even modern, dedicated, embedded electronics abilities to calculate and respond to them). The magic part of the tech is the ability to project the force-field, itself.... Once that exist, configuring it to allow the plane to fly and not cause problems while still providing all the protection needed is actually easy. That all falls well within the capabilities of modern engineering ---- well, it does as long as we presume that the field can be configured in some sort of layered lattice/net configuration and that it would be subject to anything like the math we currently already have for mapping field effects. If such a field worked based on some completely new physics/magic unlike anything we currently know, then all the other problems go away anyway because since it's all part of a fictional story this new magic/physics based tech gets to work however it needs to for the story to work. So, either way, cool force-fields. I'm actually more on Deus's side of the argument in that I can think of multiple generals I met while I was in the service who would do whatever rearranging then needed to in their budgets to get hold of those planes. Honestly, even a handful of bombers, another handful of fighters, and a few helicopters with the tech would be a massive deal. Bigger than that, if I were in the leadership of the military and found out that tech was about to be fielded by another nation, I'd get very active in trying to proactively get to the front of the line in setting up positive trade and military treaties with that nation and I'd want that force-field on my: - aircraft carriers and all other key naval vessels - I'd want to know if I could get it on tanks - I'd want to open discussions about what the nation in question would need from my nation to ensure that we had some say in who they sold this tech to in the future, (e.g. It's no good if he is selling it to our enemies as well) - does the field come in sizes that could protect a military base? a city? what about satellites? - O.k.... we know about his defensive tech... how about his offensive tech? - is his nation willing to partner with ours in order to better address extra-terrestrial hostility, (such as the recent attack that was only stopped thanks to Maxima)? Seriously... Max is seriously missing the big picture on what Deus has shown her. Any legitimately high level leader in any of the military branches in the U.S. would look at the capabilities he has demonstrated to her, (I mean... holy hell!!! forget about the forcefield for a moment... can we talk about his manufacturing tech?!?!?!?!), and they would immediately recognize that he is making global impacting, game changing moves... and that it's already too late to simply stop him. He has demonstrated multiple technologies, and evidenced multiple alliances, any one of which would cause most military analyst to start going into worried panic's about how to avoid being on the opposite side of a conflict from him and about how to prevent him from sharing his tech with their enemies. Hell... 2 Billion per vehicle is potentially cheap if it lets a country buy it's way to the front of the line to try and create a formal alliance/trade/treaty/partnership with him right now. As for the counter argument that Maxima was thinking about regarding reverse engineering, etc.... Deus is right. That path represents years, (likely decades), of work and trying to play catch-up with the nations that get the tech up front. Deus is in a much, much stronger position than I've seen anyone else in the comments really discuss.

Justaguy

For laser vs force field, go back to the very first few comics. 🤔 As a counter, Syd's shield vs laser weaponry on the Alari home world. Also, whatever happened to Sonja (spelling?) Who opened the portal.

Dave Barrack

Yeah, I stumbled across an article about the Taliban's preference for Toyota trucks while I was looking for photo references, interestingly not for the truck but just to make sure I drew a reasonably modern looking insurgent.

Mark Temple

With that price tag i doubt you'd see many takers for fighters. Aside rrom maybe a small squadron for special missions. But at that price i could see countries quickly buying it to fit onto their wet navy cruisers and carriers, for which a few billion in extra costs isn't as big a deal breaker, since they already cost tens of billions already.

Kensai

Audio and Light pass through the forcefield. The soldier acknowledged Deus's order and could be heard. We'd have a black spot where the plane is if light didn't pass. So, laser and sound weapon research to overcome.

Dave Barrack

I thought that might be the case, but it kind of sounds weird without the "the" now.

Jeriko

It's just Ukraine, not the Ukraine. The Ukraine was used to make the country sound like it was still actually part of Russia, like how the US refers to 'The South'.

Evil Midnight Lurker

The one and -only- agenda of the Japanese Diet, or rather the Liberal Democratic Party, is to make certain that all political power is held by old conservative Japanese men. Actually doing anything with that power is an incredibly far distant second.

Kyle Voltti

Ok… getting my bet in early. Deus will be felled by his hubris. The tech Deus is “acquiring” will cause the destruction of the African nation he has set up shop in. Possibly a grey goo situation. And he will cut and run rather than try to fix it.

Justaguy

If she starts losing she can just have Sydney molest-orb slam her into the ground a few times.

Simon Magid

I think they already used that with the non-Newtonic liquid they use in their ballistic vests. A slow knife would go through but they would resist and disperse kinetic energy from bullets. "Fear the Eventual Eviscerator!" But it is an awesome concept for force shields, too!

Tie Toter

The Toyota truck used by the terrorists is a great touch.😁

Graeme Thorburn

Hope Anvil is making a little coin on the side with her 'all-comers challange' here, or is she looking for something else from it?

Justaguy

Pretty sure that's a sign on the wall behind her. Probably says something like "Jaffa KREE, great chance of Kek if standing below closing door."

Justaguy

Could also go with shields that are the energy force Equivalent of silly putty, the harder you hit it, the more rigid it is, the less kinetic energy approaching the more permeable. You could probably swing something this way to prevent shield/air interaction while in flight. (Adjustable for transitioning ground -> air -> space situation? )

Simon Magid

Is Sydney reading a webcomic in the background of the last panel? o.o

Simon Magid

I think it is implied. In the sense that Max is reacting to something Deus said just a moment earlier, off-panel. But I agree that it is a bit confusing.