Russia - threadbanned users in OP

Lets hope so. Certainly beyond that Musk is a contemptible person this clearly shows the dangers of having so much of the important aspects of the military in private hands. I would also throw in on Musk the following. Let's not forget he has a Tesla factory in China which now makes a huge chunk of the cars they make. So Musk is very much beholden to the authoritarian dictatorship in China whom of course are supporting the authoritarian regime in Russia in their invasion.

Whether or not Musk is breaking his company's contract with the US defence department appears to be a total sideshow.

Most notably today Zelensky said that Russian air superiority was 'stopping' (not slowing) Ukraine's counter offensive.

That's the real issue to be fixed, never mind Musk's shenanigans.

Not sure you read my post but anyway...

Last 24 hours - 23 APV, 23 Tanks, 31 Artillery

Artillery certainly on the uptick over the past week.

The only US airforce base I was ever really near was the one in Kandahar, and my God, that was something else! They even had hangers for the drones. Massive is the only way to describe it, and if you had a liking for plane spotting, you'd never leave it. It was there my love affair with the A10 warthogs began, they had two of them continually patrolling, and I still think about back at the beginning of the Russian invasion, when a very long Russian convoy was stranded for several days on the roadside. I thought WARTHOGS!! WARTHOGS!!, But sadly it was not to be. I also saw the Blackhawks in action, up close as they say. And nothing can prepare you for the noise the make when they start firing their guns.

And you know, its strange. Harking back to the communist times, Russia had to be one of the worlds greatest users of cement, Everything was made with cement, and you would think that valuable aircraft hangars would have been built as standard practice, but then again, its Russia. So no hangars as standard. And I guess the Russians have learned to cope with the extremes of temperature's they face. But for sure, I would not like to be trying to service or do any other kind of work out in the open on an aircraft. I'll always remember on an IL76 flight, there was a problem with one engine, and during a stop, I was watching the engineer as he fixed it. ( I was holding the ladder for him, and handing him up the tools as he needed them) But the part he was working on had an intact factory seal on it, means not to be opened only by the factory. Did it bother him? Not one bit. He grabbed it with a pliers, gave it a twist, and that was it. Seemed to be a pump of some sort. Anyway, what ever it was he did, it worked. But I'd always be just a little bit skeptical about the casual attitude they had to that kind of work!

As for the tires. I still think that they are not meant to be a roof as such....just a kind of drone protection. If the drone explosive hit the tire, would it just rebound? Soften the blow so to speak. But even then, as these are remotely piloted, they could be diverted to a section of the fuselage that was unprotected? Back near or on to the tail section? Would that not cause the plane to break in two?

Musk is an odious quadruple chinned c… hopefully karma catches up with him.

Musk does have a contract with the US Department of Defense although I think it is of more recent vintage signed from what I am seeing earlier this year. It seems according to the below article previously he had a contract with a US foreign aid agency.

SpaceX's Starlink wins Pentagon contract for satellite services to Ukraine | Reuters

The whole musk episode is a warning to all Tesla owners about how the megalomaniac in charge might change terms and conditions.

He has clearly shown a number of times that he is far more concerned about being a childish edgelord than looking after his businesses. The state of "X" for instance.