Rapid Fire, August 3, 2012: Chinese Planes and Ships

* Given the high number of Chinese military aircraft that have not been produced several years after first exhibiting models, Richard Fisher, Jr. from the International Assessment and Strategy Center thinks [PDF] the vaporware label is often – though not always – justified. * China’s naval modernization [updated CRS report, PDF] seems to be more substantial and sustained. * Then there’s the discrepancy between how you model the threat, and what the threat actually is. Bill Sweetman at AviationWeek as a good post about the colorful experience of USAF pilots who flew Russian fighters in the 80s: “In 1987 we had the AIM-9P, which was designed to reject flares, and when we used US flares against it would ignore them and go straight for the target. We had the Soviet flares – they were dirty, and none of them looked the same – and the AIM-9P said ‘I love that flare’.” * US Senator Lindsey Graham [R-SC] proposed an amendment to the Senate FY13 Defense Appropriations bill that aimed to overrule the Department of Labor’s recently-stated policy on the inapplicability of the WARN Act in advance of sequestration. However the amendment was rejected 17-13. * The Project On Government Oversight […]