Russia - threadbanned users in OP

The most recent news regarding the war is that Germany has agreed to release Leopard tanks, and the US will supply Abrams tanks.

This interesting development has overshadowed other, perhaps more important, news - a new report from the Rand Corporation, which is one of the USA's more important think tanks. Rand has provided the Pentagon with policy advice for decades. In 2019, they provided a blueprint for “overextending and unbalancing” Russia that included economic sanctions, sending weapons to Ukraine, promoting uprisings in Central Asia and more.

Now, this new report says that a long war in Ukraine is not in the US interest.

Some of the more interesting points from the report:

"continued fighting ... does not serve Washington’s best interests"

US interests “often align with but are not synonymous with Ukrainian interests.”

The price of ... “keeping the Ukrainian state economically solvent will only multiply over time.”

"NATO’s military aid to Ukraine ... could also become unsustainable” and Russia may “reverse Ukrainian battlefield gains”.

The conflict “absorbs senior policymakers’ time and US military resources” distracting Washington from other global priorities, such as China, while pushing Moscow closer to Beijing.

It describes Zelensky’s vision of victory, in which Ukraine would recover all the territory already lost and force Russia to submit to war crimes trials and reparations, as “optimistic and improbable.”

Moscow, “perceives this war to be near existential” and has signaled “a high level of resolve,” the authors caution, including the possible use of nuclear weapons if it feels threatened.

At the same time, "prospects for a negotiated peace are poor in the near term”

The US could “condition future military aid on a Ukrainian commitment to negotiations,” while giving Kiiv security commitments, but “not as binding as US mutual defense treaties” or NATO membership, the report suggested. Washington should also give Moscow written assurances regarding Ukraine’s neutrality and set “conditions for sanctions relief.”

Interesting times ahead indeed if this is the most recent policy advice Biden has received.

99% of Moscow residents would stomp on Putin's head if they thought they could get away with it.

ancient orc tech over modern American tech 😂

Where do you get off repeating such nonsensical propaganda?

152mm ammo exits the chat

the pro orc faction here are seething

A separate news outlet (I can't vouch for it's reliability) --

I approve of this list.

If true, a serious blow for Russia’s munitions supply. Would be delightful if the Iranians have neglected to build any redundancy for the plants that have been hit / destroyed.

Looks like a successful night for the Israeli F35s ....

Bet nobody saw that coming 🤣🤣🤣🤣

Well that's the main idea of the F-35. ;-)

The whole fighter thing is so weird. Every single time they make a fighter, a huge effort is put into extending their range. The F-16 was alovely looking jet, now it's a fugly abomination.

All fighters are just basically small bombers these days and as soon as they come off a production line, someones trying to turn them into an F-111 or B-2

They should go back to the YF-23 design, add range and make it into a stealth F-111 which is what most really want in the first place.

Who could it be?

Tonight's episode of Warship BBC2 9pm looks interesting & involves our Russian friends.

On its way to the far Pacific, HMS Queen Elizabeth ventures into the eastern Mediterranean. Britain's biggest warship is exercising its rights of navigation in international waters, but almost immediately Russian warships are diverted from the Black Sea to intercept it, while. Russian fighter bombers are also scrambled from their base in Syria to buzz the British task force and a tense stand-off unfolds

Good articles on the race in the Ukraine and in Russia where Defense industries are ramping up.

While Ukraine need speed to take advantage of Russia's current low point, The Russians are throwing mass numbers in to wear down Ukrainian forces and buy time to train and replace more and dig in deep.

All a bit WW1, years of fighting for small movement, mass casualties and 2 broken States after it all. The worst outcome for all.

It also talks about the need for Western arms industries to ramp up as western stocks are getting low.

In contrast to the Ukr side