Alex Luck

180 feet is a boat, not a ship. Stop torturing nautical nomenclature to make VC pitch decks sound tougher. The problem is not only tradition, which we ship captains cherish. It’s that politicians are latching onto this fiction to justify not building actual ships. They point to optimistic build numbers and say “look, the Navy can easily get to 600 ships by 2030.” It also undermines the broader reality. Since our founding, the United States has always been good at building large boats. There are at least 50 boatyards in this country today capable of building vessels that size. Yes, they too are struggling, and we need to support and fund boatyards. But an actual shipyard is orders of magnitude more difficult to manage. That said, Saronic is on an incredible trajectory, and 180 feet is a massive leap from the dinghies on display at Sea Air Space. We absolutely need to support Saronic’s efforts. But words matter. And words matter especially now, for two reasons. First, because nautical knowledge has been stripped out of the American educational system. Companies like Saronic and Anduril are capturing the nation’s attention. That gives them a unique opportunity, I would say a responsibility, to educate. And that education is how we get congressional funding and how we pull young Americans into the maritime labor market. Second, I have no doubt Saronic will build real ships one day. But large shipyards don’t pop up overnight. To be fully successful, Saronic needs places like Alabama Shipyard and California Forever to invest in equipment and labor right now. That’s a double-edged sword. Countless startups have proven the path to success is hyper-focus on the next product, not the one you’ll build in five years. Saronic literally started by launching drones off a surfboard. If they had focused on 180-foot workboats back then, there would be no Saronic today. But if they don’t focus on ships now, there will be no drydocks, no gantry cranes, and no skilled welders to build the big hulls tomorrow. It’s the same problem the large data companies are facing. If Google had used its enormous resources and political clout to go all in on nuclear five years ago, it would have a monopoly on AI data growth today. It didn’t. Now it’s scrambling for electrons like everyone else. All that said, this is not a post chastising Saronic. Google deserves every bit of loathing we can give, because not only did it fund the woke anti-nuclear agenda, it still throttles those of us who write about heavy industry in its search results. Saronic deserves nothing but praise for taking a tiny product and growing it exponentially. All this post is about is words. Calling boatbuilding “shipbuilding” is not a massive screwup. But words matter. Shipbuilding is 9 out of 10 in difficulty. Boatbuilding is closer to 6 out of 10. It’s dishonest to call these ships. But the broader problem is what that dishonesty enables. Every time a 180-foot boat gets marketed as a ship, Congress nods, checks a box, and tells voters the battle fleet is growing. And it is. Lethality is growing with medium sized surface vehicles. But the laws of physics don’t care about pitch decks. A real war against China is thousands of miles away and would consume massive quantities of explosives. The range and cargo capacity of warheads requires larger hulls. Maybe 180’ boats can provide all the lethality we need... but they either need motherships to reload and refuel or more capacity on their own. When congress nods, checks a box, and tells voters the ship count is growing. The destroyers, oilers, amphibs, and auxiliaries we actually need stay on the drawing board. The drydocks stay cold. The welders stay unhired. And Beijing keeps counting massively large hulls. Their shipyards know the difference between a boat and a ship. Ours used to. The day we stop knowing the difference is the day we lose the Pacific without firing a shot.

这可能是你这辈子能见到的最顶级的安保力量。 就是这个北京街头刷屏的车队， 拍摄的路人全程在喊卧槽， 一长串黑色重型SUV，警灯闪烁，绵延几百米。 全网都在刷这个场面有多夸张， 但其实90%的人都看错了， 这根本不是特朗普的主车队。 只是整个安保体系里，最不起眼的后勤支援部分。 这次特朗普访华， 7架C-17环球霸王提前飞抵北京， 运来了500多吨物资和全部车辆。 2017年他第一次来，只来了3架。 特勤局直接调动了100-200名精锐特工， 贴身环绕的钻石阵型， 重武装的反突击队， 部署在所有高点的反狙击手， 还有专门的电子战和反无人机小队。 每一辆你看到的Suburban， 都是8英寸厚装甲的移动堡垒， 能扛AK-47和火箭筒， 轮胎打爆了还能高速跑几公里， 自带核生化密封舱和独立空气系统。 以前的安保是保护人， 现在的安保是移动的堡垒。 是一整套能独立运行的作战系统。 这还只是冰山一角， 真正的主车队里，那辆9吨重的The Beast， 连车窗玻璃都打不开， 里面有总统专属血库，氧气，还有一整套武器库。 #特朗普访华 #安保

PabloReports: What do you make of President Xi not welcoming President Trump on the tarmac? McGovern: That’s how much respect President Xi has for President Trump.

Maybe. But if you build a USV that can do everything a crewed sloop might do, couldn’t it work even better with ~20 people onboard who could fix defects, make strategically prudent choices even if denied comms, and give foes pause before running it down with a ‘merchant’ ship?

Indiana’s entire quest to keep the Nazi’s from getting the Ark was 100% a waste of time. In the end he was captured by the Nazi’s and tied-up while they opened the Ark. When they did, the power of God killed all the Nazis, end of problem. If Indiana had never set out on his quest, the Nazis still would have found the Ark and all been killed when they opened it. The only contribution Indiana made was to actually find the Ark for the Nazis because they were digging in the same place. Had he just stayed home, either they never find it or they find it and all die when they opened it. Way to go Indy.