US or China - Best gadgets

[Footie]

We have seen recently the US and China bedding down together for political reasons but they are also squabbling and falling out over each other’s antics in the South China Sea.

Top US, China diplomats work to smooth relations

Wars now tend to be small-scale skirmishes with technical wizardry at the forefront. With China being one of the world leaders in production, could they come up with their own gadgets to out smart the US?
(Of course we all know the US would turn to the UK for the serious stuff )

So (hypothetically) if it came down to the wire and US and China took a pop at each other who do you think would win the gadget war and why?
(Not talking nuclear here).
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[flecc]

On the political front, China's much improved relations with Russia in recent years makes the situation much more difficult for the USA, though they are so financially bound together now that a full scale Sino/US relationship split is nigh on impossible in the short and medium term.

On war "gadgets" I think the USA must be the favourite for some while yet, the Chinese strength still being mainly in production. However the Chinese might start catching up quite quickly if the need arose and they have shown some fresh thinking in a few areas. In addition they've had the Russian input into their space program so in the unlikely event of a Sino/US conflict, they could conceivably have access to Russia's defence technology and equipment too, which would give them a considerable kick start.
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[Barnowl]

Free thinking, people and organisations willing to stump up lots of investment to turn an idea into useful gadget is a clear winner. The US is good at this. They have an organisation called DARPA - off the web site:

"The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is the central research and development office for the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD). DARPA’s mission is to maintain the technological superiority of the U.S. military and prevent technological surprise from harming our national security. We also create technological surprise for our adversaries."

I saw a TV program that showed some of the stuff they could talk about. They had a great gadget that enabled navy seals to swim underwater very fast in a straight line completely unasisted. Simple but much faster than flippers.

PS That's the 2 legged seals not the ones that come with flippers attached anyway.

 

[Beanie101]

Is it this one? Navy SEALs PowerSwim - DARPA Device - Efficient Swimming - Aquaman - Popular Mechanics

 

[Barnowl]

Yeah that's the contraption that featured.

Love the comment:

"This is not new I remember seeing these at the underwater championships in Aldershot UK in the late sixty's "