"The 1980's are calling to ask for their foreign policy back."

Probably at least some propaganda here by Kyiv post to set the Russian military leadership against each other, but some of it also seems cogent.

Plot Thickens: Russian Generals Supported Wagner Mutiny but Backed Out – US Intelligence

https://www.kyivpost.com/post/18817

It does seem unlikely Prighozin would have moved without some belief that he had backing.

Let's hope this causes even more dissent in the Kremlin.

Poland’s getting $15 billion in Patriot missile systems.

https://trib.al/2HI5FWC

And in one of the most inevitable headlines ever:
Putin is freezing out and arresting people deemed to be traitors after the Wagner mutiny: reports


https://www.businessinsider.com/rus...-traitors-in-military-wagner-rebellion-2023-6

Right out of the Hitler, Stalin, and Mao playbook.

https://twitter.com/ralee85/status/1674469695846592525

ATACMS to Ukraine.

Bumping this from Feb.

If we are providing enough ATACMS (and then GLSDB) then the only limit to what Ukraine can hit is targeting intel.

Mike Pence was in Kyiv on a visit. That really pisses off certain people. Greta Thunberg was also in Kyiv. That makes certain people go all the more crazy.

Wonderful! Good! These are beautiful gestures.

Unfortunately, neither brought anything of immediate value. The Ukrainians need weapons, more weapons and many more weapons on top. But still! Everything helps a little. Even the shameless self-promotion of some public figures.

https://twitter.com/popsci/status/1674651520883630080?s=46&t=iYW3foyqIA6Tn8VWwn3nwQ

Israeli defense company unveils its radar-targeting battle gear to destroy drones

****Grizzled and battle-scarred Sargent chewing on his cigar as he speaks**** Yeah, I can think of two countries who'd be real interested in that, right about now. The question is: Are the Israelis willing to sell them? And if not, do those countries have the resources to duplicate it on their own? ****/GaBSSCohahS****

https://twitter.com/Seveerity/status/1675069624273059841

[edit] Posting text and pics because… Elmo.

Captured from a trench in the vicinity of Bakhmut...






Wow.

WOW!

Completely ignoring the content we would make cartoon training pamphlets for the Afghan National Army (ANA) since they were mostly illiterate but what does this say about the education level of the Russian Army?

But the content, . Don’t go changing Russia. Did the Political Officer pass these out and read aloud the words (basically: ‘that’s the difference’) during weekly political education classes?!?!

Those fucking Russian Kamov Ka-52s are making it very difficult for the Ukrainians to move forward with the counter-offensive. All the courage and all the sacrifices are of no use as long as the fucking Russians can shoot down the Ukrainian tanks. Modern Leopards or not.

How the hell are you supposed to mount a successful counter-offensive without significant air support? The Ukrainians won't be getting any new planes for a long time. You can't neutralise the Ka-52s with manpads alone. I am far from an expert on the intricacies of modern warfare, but this is a shitty situation, any layman can see that!

The West demands quick results. Well then, send the stuff the Ukrainians need to blast the filthy Russians away! By Cthulhu the Merciful, it all pisses me off. And my fucking government is still hiding behind neutrality. I'm ashamed of my country.

On the plus side there's reports of anywhere between 1/4 and 1/3 of all Ka-52s already downed, and Russia only fielded about 120 according to Western intelligence estimates before the war began.

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/russia-loses-5-ka-52-141500954.html

It's not like the US who has over 1000 Apache helicopters.

But it's definitely easier to defend in a modern war, especially if you have air superiority. The F-16s aren't going to be in service any time soon unless there was a specific disinfo campaign on that topic.

The damn eggheads in our Western military academies should come up with something. But that's probably not the problem, it's the lack of political will.

A handful of modern Western jets could wipe all the Russians out of the Ukrainian skies in no time. Probably in a few hours. That is the tragedy of the matter. It's downright ridiculous and simply makes you want to puke!

Even if we take direct action (NATO establishing a No Fly Zone over Ukraine) off the table it is actually pretty simple from a military standpoint.

It’s a one-two punch. More SHORADS (Short Range Air Defense Systems - think missile systems on HMMWVs) to protect the troops on the front line. Longer range missile systems to destroy them on the ground.

Eventually Russia will be forced to pull them back so far from the front lines that not only will it take longer and longer to reach the line of contact (especially considering how shitty their C3 [Command, Control and Communications]) is, you decrease their Time Over Target AND you put even more stress on already poorly maintained and overused airframes.

I seriously doubt that they (Muscovites) have anything close to that now. Satellite imagery is showing increasing numbers of airframes pulled out of hangers and abandoned to just use for parts.

The US military is constantly fretting over its Tooth to Tail Ratio but we seeing real time what happens when you instead only care about how your Teeth look in photos.

Rant

As I said, I am anything but an expert on modern warfare. But one thing has become clear: The Russian military has quite a few men, but it is not even close to being a match for Western firepower. Remember the Iraq wars? The Iraqi air force was wiped out within hours. That's what would happen with the Russian air force over Ukraine.

Yes, the Russians have nuclear weapons, we have to be careful, the threat of nuclear Armageddon, blah blah blah.... I can't stand it any more, always the same sermon. Pathetic fear propaganda.

The thirty FA-18s of the puny Swiss army could wipe the shitty Russians out of the Ukrainian sky. The Russians have nothing to offer but threats and propaganda for their ass kissers, money recipients, wannabe pacifists and other fear mongers here in the West. They are weak. Putin's Russia is weak.

Simplicistic rant over. Had to let off some steam.

I'm sure Israel would love the opportunity to test their anti-drone tech against the Iranian drones currently harassing Ukraine.

As long as Netanyahu is at the helm, nothing like this will happen. He is still cozying up to Putin and doesn't realise what he is doing.

Netanyahu is ruining his country and is a bigger threat to Israel than the fucking retarded Iranian government.

The Israelis are fucking up big time right now, just like my country.

LOL at timing. Just listened to this podcast which is a bit jargony but definitely deals with this subject (although from a NATO Lessons Learned perspective). The two dudes are the commander and deputy commander of NATO AirCom who just hosted a 200+ invite only conference (strategists, think tanks, pols, military, etc) on what Air and Space Lessons Learned we could pick up after 16 months of fighting.

(Unfortunately it was the deputy commander’s idea and he organized and ran it, so 4/5ths of the time it sounds like you are listening to a character from Downton Abbey.)

Still worth a listen IMO.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/war-on-the-rocks/id682478916

This episode comes to you from Ramstein Air Base, where Ryan spoke with Gen. James Hecker of the U.S. Air Force and Air Marshall Johnny Stringer of the Royal Air Force about what we can learn from airpower and spacepower almost a year and a half into the war in Ukraine.

Some acronyms for anyone who does want to listen:

VKS - Latin abbreviation of the Russian name for their aerospace forces

IAMD - Integrated Air and Missile Defense - Pretty self explanatory

A2/AD - Anti-Access/Area Denial - Not letting enemy forces get into theater/not allowing them to move within theater

NGAD (En-Gad) - Next Generation Air Dominance - F-22 replacement. Expected in 30s so likely 50s.

CCA - Collaborative Combat Aircraft. UAVs mostly autonomous but some possibly human controlled that will work as a pack led by an NGAD. They will all have special roles and tasks but also think of all the movies where the guy gets between a missile and the one plane that has to complete the mission? They’ll also do that for the NGAD if necessary.

The Zampolits return.

@Ancalagon

I had a quick listen.

Conclusion: The Russians are not up to it, are rather bumbling and can only be successful against more or less unarmed people like the Syrian opposition. Or against motivated but underarmed forces like the Ukrainians.

So nothing new.

The eggheads would know how to do it. Now only one would have to listen and implement it! But that costs money.

Every fool knows that corruption is a huuuuge problem in Ukraine, but I still keep sending money there. In the hope that one or two Euros will be spent on weapons and not end up in the pocket of some rotten official.

US drone activity over Moldova seems to be picking up.

https://twitter.com/rybar_force/status/1675217881225732098?s=20

That strip of red territory you see between part of Moldova and Ukraine? That's an unpronounceable "independent nation" that is only recognized by Russia. Essentially, folks backed by Putin kicked the Moldovan government out, but nobody outside of Russia recognizes that place as anything than the hapless puppet of Putin. Do a little light reading on the history of Moldova after the Fall of the USSR. You think things were bad in Russia, Moldova was even worse. Entire towns just disappeared because the economy imploded so hard. You might remember that in the mid-90s there were a rash of stories about Eastern European women working in brothels in places like Amsterdam and there were questions about how willing they were to be doing that? Most of them were from Moldova. And some of them knew ahead of time what they were getting into, but because things were so bad where they were living that it sounded like an improvement. Yup. That bleak.

Copy/Pasting from earlier in the thread:

It’s been a while but I believe Moldova is heavily majority ethnic Romanian but with a distinct ethnic Russian minority and only the Transdisnestra region being majority ethnic Russian. However the Russians are relatively ‘new’ brought in by the Tsars and the Soviets to try and Russify the area.

Before being taken by the Russian Empire the territory was part of the different lands/principalities/kingdoms/states that now make up modern Romania.

Since independence there have been questions about reuniting with Romania. A decent but not huge majority of Moldovans have been against it but as Romania (in EU and NATO) continues to rapidly develop (Moldova is the poorest country in Europe) that is changing and something like a quarter of Moldovans under 50 have gotten Romanian passports (mostly to get access to EU [free movement for work]).

All that to say, IIRC it is part of the Romanian Constitution that whenever Moldova wants to rejoin they can. Meaning that basically Moldova could back door into NATO at any time which means NATO territory would have Russian occupiers which would be… interesting…

Russia blocks media outlets linked to Wagner Group boss who led brief rebellion

Good podcast on this issue:

A year ago, Republican voters thought Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the people of Ukraine were badasses. Now...Zelenskyy is just as bad as Putin. Tom Nichols, Professor Emeritus at the Naval War College and staff writer at The Atlantic, joins Sarah to listen to the voters' foreign policy takes. Tom is not impressed with the voters.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-focus-group-podcast/id1586423406

Long story short the kid is not unique. This switch is common among conservative media consumers and ‘I do my own research’ left behinders.

https://twitter.com/penamerica/status/1675628436209926144?s=46&t=iYW3foyqIA6Tn8VWwn3nwQ

Shell still trading Russian gas despite pledge to stop

https://twitter.com/nexta_tv/status/1675827775318503424?s=46&t=iYW3foyqIA6Tn8VWwn3nwQ