For that matter, which I didn't think of until later, Kazakhstan has a border with China and ports on the Caspian Sea. I like your idea better, though.

Of course not, and the F-150 isn't the same truck as when it was introduced in 1975. It's still the same basic vehicle except now it's got power steering, you can't get it with a manual transmission, and it has air conditioning. Sure, the Patriot has had some improvements, especially a better radar system (which now needs gallium that China won't sell us), but it's still the same basic vehicle.

This wouldn't be allowed if the Chinese government didn't approve to a certain extent. I'm wondering if this is their way of allowing the BRICS countries to arm themselves with a weapon the Empire has no defense against.

Interesting claim. Why is it then that Patriot batteries in Ukraine keep getting destroyed? It couldn't possibly be that a weapon developed in the 1980s is inadequate for usage four decades later, could it? Nah, that's just crazy talk...

Easy to shoot down, until you run out of interceptors and have to spend half an hour or more to reload while the next wave is incoming. Then there is the simple fact that if you're spending $8,000,000 (two THAAD missiles, which are fired in pairs) to shoot down a $100,000 missile that's a serious self-own. (Of course if you don't shoot it down you may lose your $500,000,000 radar set.)

Heat dissipation is a major issue with those systems. Throw a dozen drones at it and it might be able to handle it, throw three dozen in its direction and it will overheat and be the biggest infrared target in the region and impossible to miss.

Between the Ukraine and Iran conflicts Western militaries should be panicking, but all they seem to be doing is asking for more money to continue with business as usual and preparing to re-fight the Iraq clusterfuck.

On the other hand there are cartels in Mexico who might want to take out a DEA office or two (if there aren't any which aren't corrupt). On the other hand the Chinese government will have to approve any export license.

It's a car analogy, a hoary old tradition on SlashDot. It's also a rhetorical technique that author uses a lot to make costs relatable to the general public. In a different article he pointed out that a billion dollar radar installation was taken out by a Shahed drone that cost about what you'd pay for a used BMW.

Getting them there wouldn't be much of an issue, Kazakhstan has a border with China and shares the Caspian Sea with Iran.

About a dozen tankers are leaving Iran through the Strait daily, and Rump is so panicked by the spike in petroleum prices that the US Navy is letting them pass unobstructed.

For delivery shove them in the empty tanks of the ship when it returns for refill.

On the other hand, bombing schools and hospitals seems to be a specialty of USrael. No annoying air defense to get in the way.

Only people that the Chinese government approve of are going to be able to buy them, even though it comes in a cargo container the days of being able to get anything you want out of China if you pass some money under the table are long gone.

About 800 miles, according to TFA.

My great great grandparents (both sets) belonged to a militia in northern Michigan, organized to defend against Mormon raiders from Beaver Island, and that wasn't the only one. Militias existed across the country for mutual defense against Indians, raiders, Confederates, and Canadians until the beginning of the last century.

Frontier militias and merchant ships could be, and were, armed with a dizzying array of weapons. Grenades, cannons, mortars, flame throwers, mines, etc. and Congress made no attempt to control them.

The Second Amendment is outdated and needs to be revised or repealed. Don't just pretend it means something that it doesn't.