Russia-Ukraine War (continuing)

Many expressed their doubts about Russia's technologically freshness when they starting sending up soviet era stock like the Bear for long range patrols in 2007.

To preempt the usual "concern"..

The counter-offensive so far seems like a smart move considering how hard the Russians have been pushed. Maybe it will gain some ground, maybe it won't.

No they didn't "announce it", the Russians reported it first.

The Ukrainian military knows more about their tactical situation than armchair second-guessers. Again, we'll see if any progress can be made.

The timing is likely important.

Lol.

I'm glad someone picked up on this because I noticed comments like this getting upvoted on Russian telegrams. How do they not see the irony. They also act like NATO is running out of armour to lose in Ukraine. Have they not checked their own Soviet storage bases?

What goes around,comes around.

Russian Orthodox celebrate Christmas over the 6th and 7th of January, these strikes are a Ukrainian present to them.

I had thought of the b62 but it was never mothballed but constantly updated.

Article is a bit sensationalist…. there had been jamming in the Med for well over 10 years now, and sporadic to continuous in the Baltic the last 5….

The problem with the Ryanair flight is that it was flying RNAV (GPS navigation). There has been a program in place to remove "legacy" (I use that term lightly, as with all the issues of GPS in regions of war, they are showing their worth again) navigational aids (VOR, DME, NDB) through Europe… reasons were plenty, with GPS you have better position details, you can use airspace more freely compared to being constrained to traditional air routes which hop to hop radio beacons, or intersection of radio beacons…. allowing for more traffic to be in the air. Navaids are expensive to run too

With more traffic in the air, you need anti collisions systems like TCAS (ACAS?) which rely on Mode-S, which relies on GPS…

Common denominator, GPS, mess with it, it reduces airspace capacity, and if some airports can only facilitate RNAV arrivals, it affects that too…

What we're seeing around Ukraine, is not necessarily flights being targeted, moreso, GPS is affected, which as above reduces airspace capacity, or closes RNAV airports, resulting in cancellations or diversions.

Russian's double down on stupidity… so yes, Chinese intervention was required.

I wouldn't go as far as assuming Russia doesn't have functioning nukes…

The submarine and nuclear forces have always been kept to a higher standard than the rest of the forces.

Also, while there has been some spectacular failings of many of Russia's "new" weapon systems. There has been numerous successful tests of existing nuke delivery systems as recent as within the last 6 months in the Pacific Ocean. Both ship borne and sub launched ballistic systems.

To write off an arsenal of 5,000+ warheads as completely defunct is just silly.

If it does ever get to the red button time, I doubt Russia would be the ones who do it anyway, it would be by proxy of "someone who went rogue".

China are stepping in as they don't expect to be ready to make an attempt on Taiwan until circa 2027. Nukes going off before that, along with the excuse for a heavy handed western response to all threats would be a disaster to their plans.

What happens Putin really isn't a priority for China, whose main national project is international trade.

The US chip tariffs are already having an adverse effect on Taiwan's main exporter TSCM as China's chip making sector has gotten a boost that reduces demand from Taiwan.

Geopolitically the far east of Russia is already a defacto extension of the north Chinese economy.