Please use this thread to continue discussing the war in Ukraine.
All mod instructions from the previous thread remain in force here
Original thread:
The population (and industrial capacity) of Allies was a lot more than Germany/Italy/Japan axis
Didn’t stop these countries starting and initially capturing large swathes of land, populations (they used in war) and industrial capacity (German tanks in Chezhoslovakia, oil for Japan in fat east)
And more importantly for us to remember killed millions of people
the exact same stupidity and ideology has infected Putin who has iron grip on Russia and spent three years feeding Russian into a wood chipper and now moved on to importing people from poor places
The History of Second World War podcast is on episode 182 now and only got to invasion of France, the parallels are many 😞 especially the denial and appeasement form western politicians who buried their heads in sand
Various sources picking up on it
Looks like it's taking a tumble
alternatively: Putin used to know that the economy was best left to professionals. Indeed, the men and women running the country’s central bank, finance ministry, and ministry of economic development remain highly skilled and saved the country from economic collapse in 2022.
Two years on, they clearly understand the longer-term impossibility of the task they’ve been set. The question is, do they dare tell the boss? And if they do, will he listen?
https://cepa.org/article/russias-economy-closer-to-the-edge-than-it-looks/
The EU population is a lot more than double that of putin's empire.
Can Russia fight endless wars and sacrifice limitless amounts of people despite having only half the population of the EU?
This is a sobering read.
https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/ukrainealert/victory-in-ukraine-would-dramatically-strengthen-putins-war-machine/ — the Atlantic Council.
Espicially the last paragraph which says that
"Putin has prepared the entire Russian society for war and is openly preparing the entire country for a long struggle against the West. The current invasion is an important part of this fight, but it is only the beginning. Russia's victory in Ukraine will create the basis for even bolder acts of international aggression," the experts conclude."
Not just ground launched variant, the US supplied Ukraine a version of JDAM with glide capabilities for their aircraft there last year too.
Ukraine have been developing their own as the other glide bombs the US supplied were the ground launch variant launched by HIMARS. However they have been very susceptible to Russian electronic interference, GPS jamming.
Ukraine also use French supplied hammer bombs, which are air launched and have a rocket booster. I don't think they have any issues.
The US have been buying add on seeker heads for the glide bombs which are designed to home in on GPS jamming and destroy them. Meaning the rest of the bombs would get through.
yes, and also launching their own. Ukraine now have developed their own glide bombs, probably in anticipation of the new plane delivery.
Sanctions don't work,or something…..
Lol.
I'd say a priority use will be to tackle those planes launching the glide bombs.
another 50 billion dollars!
I think we should temper our expectations a bit. Those F-16s, once the first squadron comes online, will be playing defense for a good bit, used to seal off Ukrainian air space, at least until more aircraft come online and the Ukrainian F-16 force increases in size. Trying to put together a strike package too early is a recipe for disaster, especially when you're planning to go after a target such as the Kerch bridge. I guarantee you that those S-300s and S-400s that have been suffering from premature detonation recently (don't shame them, happens to everyone) are not the only SAM sites surrounding the bridge and between SEAD aircraft, proper air cover for the strike aircraft and any potential backups, plus likely diversionary raids, that's going to be a lot of jets. According to Wikipedia, Ukraine has a total of 83 F-16s in the pipeline, and I personally wouldn't expect any offensive use of those aircraft until at least half of that force is operational and has had time to gather some experience.
I'm actually more upbeat about the Mirage 2000's strike capability. Those aircraft are designed to work seamlessly with SCALP/Storm Shadow, making those aircraft into a pretty potent deep strike platform. I just hope that France and Ukraine move quickly on getting pilots trained and aircraft handed over.
Was talking to an old Russian friend over the weekend, first conversation in a very long time, maybe 18 mths or so, and to put it mildly, shocked was not a big enough word to describe how I felt after seeing him. He'd changed completely, face shrunk and desperate looking, like an alcoholic who was suffering delirium tremens with a kind of hunted look about him. Except he doesn't drink. Retired now, and trying to survive on his pension in the face of rising prices., and its a hard battle. He was never a fan of Putin but would cheerfully kill him now if he got the chance. I'm pretty sure that there are many just like him, but powerless to do anything about it. One of his sons is safe in Germany but the other one is in Moscow and living under the cloud of conscription. Putins Russia is a horrendous place, and people say that sanctions etc are not working. Its not true!
I wouldn't be surprised if there used as an attack against the bridge linking crimea to Russia proper. Try and knock the bridge out at a few sections. Be a big PR win for Ukraine if they did.
They really are softening up Crimea for the eventual arrival of F16s
That's certainly a possibility as well, and anything that gets additional targets locked and additional missiles in the air is to be welcomed, that's for sure.
It's just launchers and radar unfortunately.
However the extra radar and launchers would extend the coverage in an existing system, meaning rather than 2 patriots (or 2 other Sam systems) defending a city, you could have a single system with an extra radar and launchers covering the same area. That leaves a spare system for elsewhere.
I wouldn't see the additional launchers and radar as redundancies.
The article above is about US sending another one which is a new development
That’s parallel to whatever the Dutch trying to put together, there is also increasing noises from Germany also about sending another Patriot of theirs and whatever the French/Italians have sent (they don’t announce things)
Aside
The big question is whether that Patriot from the Netherlands just encompasses the radar and three launchers, or whether they've included a command post vehicle and a generator as well. If they're included, that would basically be another full battery, especially if you take into consideration the two launchers provided by the Netherlands earlier. If it's just the launchers and the radar, then that would be less useful, although it would provide some redundancy in case any of the existing batteries take another hit.
Add to that:
https://mil.in.ua/en/news/norway-to-allocate-funds-for-the-purchase-of-100-missiles-for-the-ukrainian-patriot-air-defense-system/
https://mil.in.ua/en/news/the-netherlands-to-provide-ukraine-with-3-patriot-launchers-and-radars/
US sending another patriot system
your predecessors said the same about MH17
So you've absolutely zero proof and it's just an anecdote. Thanks that's all i needed.
Russia regularly does extremely stupid **** like cutting off biggest customers who were actually somewhat pro Russia at time or that time they started yet another war which instead of three days they expected is running into third year
Destroying nordstream is a stupid thing to do
Q.E.D
now it’s your turn, are you able to backup your claims you posted before the recent election here that people should not vote down ballot
Which coincidentally is a stupid thing to do
It's nord stream not north stream and you'll be able to back up the claim that the Russians blew it up right?
It was other way around, Putin cut gas to Germany (and blew up north stream) until that point Germany dragged feet on helping Ukrainians
This company paid 13 billion to Russian mafia and ended up getting nothing in return as per tweet, some sort of lesson in there about lying down with dogs and getting fleas
There are still consumers of Russian criminal gas in Hungary and Austria and onto Balkans but that’s about 3-4% of overall European gas imports, funnily enough these countries also have most expensive gas now
A bit like Niall Boylan, I think Mick will be caught. Will be a fine day if that comes true.
But I thought that Germany had cut Russian gas / oil imports after Putin invaded Ukraine?
Gazprom bout to go bankrupt?
German gas giant Uniper has announced that it has terminated long-term gas supply contracts with Gazprom.
