Because the vast majority of people, either through preference or propaganda, do not want to be vegan. Lab meat is a way to reduce the harm done to animals and the environment because it's an easy option for those people to take - it's not ideal, but it's got a better chance of widespread adoption (and thus the most potential improvement) vs. anything else we've got going right now.

Two U.S. government officials who spoke to The Intercept on the condition of anonymity said the CIA has been running covert operations in Mexico, working alongside vetted Mexican state-level police forces and other government agencies.

CIA working alongside a government on mutual goals is interesting in that it sounds like this is... not dramatic? The CIA spends so much money convincing people they're a boogyman capable of flipping regimes on a whim, it's rare to see the tedious "we are there to ease paperwork on cooperative international projects" part of the job actually getting reported on.

Well tbf, the strait was opened, then closed, then opened, then closed even more, then opened but only a little, then trump stuck his foot in it when iran tried to close it, but then iran bonked his foot with a hammer and closed it while he was jumping up and down and swearing, then it was checks notes actually there was one more go-round before we're done.

... God, this has been exhausting and I'm not even in Iran.

Not trying to defend him but... uh... Why are we making fun of him for not bombing civilians? Clearly he TACO'd but man I sure prefer that to the alternative.

The navy has had it's own fairly effective anti-air missiles in the RIM series for a while, but there's been a huge push to standardize around VLS and this lets them achieve that and cover a big defensive gap at the same time. As far as I am aware no RIM missile is VLS compatible (meaning they require their own dedicated launchers with space for same), whereas VLS PAC-3 MSE/CRI (1 and 4 missiles per cell, respectively) can just be dropped in - all you need to do is plug it into your Aegis bus and you're set.

I don't know how effective CRI is against the various hypersonic missiles, but if it indeed is effective then it's roughly 1:1 at about USD ~$3 million per Iskander missile - so economically it's viable for the US (no healthcare go brr) to keep up there.

Production-wise, it's... not really possible to know. If next year LM hits it's production target of 2000 PAC-3 MSE without compromising PAC-3 CRI production then... maybe...? Unfortunately neither China nor Russia are as transparent with their military production capacity as the US is, and both countries have a proven history of sometimes just making up those same numbers so losers like me can't have fun.

If we go with the official statistics, Russia has a capacity of 1200 9M723 (Iskander) a year, and china has a capacity of 17,000 DF-17, 3000 YJ-21, 800 DF-ZF... (and the costs for the chinese missiles are just guesswork. We don't even know if the DF-ZF or DF-17 are entirely real due to lack of info, let alone their unit cost) so... Yeah. Maybe?

(I'm guessing here, this is not financial advice, etc:) It's probably technically maintainable, but it would be stupid. More likely will be the investment into low-cost interceptors, lasers, CIWS and expansion of high-simultanious-target combat management systems to go with them with an emphasis on identification, so militaries can be less flamboyant with the high cost missiles.

Autism™

(and I desperately need a life.)

PAC-3 MSE have been quite effective against Iskander/Oreshank; PAC-2 GEM(etc) haven't been (they're just not manuverable enough, as I understand it), and I have no idea if PAC-3 CRI has ever been fired against a russian hypersonic missile. In typical chinese military fashion, there's not much officially known about the YJ-21/DF-17/DF-ZF that isn't somewhat farfetched (they do love their obfuscation) - but it's pretty widely accepted (it may have even been confirmed, it's a little unclear) that the YJ-21 is an air-launched variant of the SY-400 SRBM missiles, which have been generally comparable to the Iskander (including initially having pretty terrible guidance, theoretically provided via a satellite network. This was dumb if it's true, and all the info we have is that they're using INS with satellite backups - there's still confusion about why they would have ever attempted it if it was true and most wonks have moved to the opinion that it was either misinformation or an experimental version. The versions of the SY-400 systems Qatar bought do not use this solely-satellite-guided system, at least).

The US NAVY's move to adopt VLS PAC-3 MSE into Aegis is designed to patch the coverage gap these sorts of hypersonic SRBMs created, and if its performance in Ukraine is any indication it'll likely be quite effective.

unfortunately AI (reflection in the phone screen, gigantic hand...)

Hot concept tho!

(In 2011)

~~Wtf?~~
edit: I'm sorry, I wildly misinterpreted that when I woke up. No I have enough projects in my life, but your enthusiasm is well placed. More fun fediverse drama pls.

It's a chibi-esque-ish art style - not obviously manga but I can see why someone might think that if they were unfamiliar with the genre

Um, okay - but in what way are they zionists? "Trust me bro" isn't really an explanation, and I've been here for a couple years and have not seen any overt zionist behavior. Could you elaborate?