It’s something of a cycle that aggressors will claim capabilities that are terrifying and then the US overreacts. When we heard about the Foxbat we built the F-15, even though the former eats its own engines if used at afterburner for more than a minute and would melt if it hit the top speed.
The Space Race happened because we thought the Soviets had way more capability than they did.
Hell, the B-52 only exists because we were convinced the Russians had thousands of bombers.
In reality, the Soviets lied so completely to their population and leadership that they also thought they had that stuff, even though they were basically forcing captured Nazi scientists to copy Western designs.
It’s something of a cycle that aggressors will claim capabilities that are terrifying and then the US overreacts. When we heard about the Foxbat we built the F-15, even though the former eats its own engines if used at afterburner for more than a minute and would melt if it hit the top speed.
The Space Race happened because we thought the Soviets had way more capability than they did.
Hell, the B-52 only exists because we were convinced the Russians had thousands of bombers.
In reality, the Soviets lied so completely to their population and leadership that they also thought they had that stuff, even though they were basically forcing captured Nazi scientists to copy Western designs.