Replacing previous thread which has continuing page count issues.
Previous Thread
Previous Original Thread:
Threabanned posters:
brickstser69
slay55
mulbot
Replace the Backfires and Bears, no. But they could likely just turn up the tap on the Blackjack factory a bit more to make up the gaps. They restarted production a couple of years ago. Obviously a bit modernised.
https://newatlas.com/military/russias-tu-160-bomber-restarts-full-production/
Interested, yes. Afraid, not particularly. Again, there is nothing particularly new here in concept. The US has long concluded that a future conflict with a peer power will begin with even Fort to Port being contested, and not only by drones and missiles. Cyber attacks on the railroad, for example, could be critical.
2017
https://www.ausa.org/articles/threats-posts-army-must-rethink-base-security
2018
https://www.airforcetimes.com/news/your-air-force/2018/08/27/the-homeland-is-no-longer-a-sanctuary-amid-rising-near-peer-threats-northcom-commander-says/
And from a more recent article. https://www.rand.org/pubs/commentary/2025/06/defending-us-military-bases-against-drones-a-recent.html
The US is ahead of most countries in this concept. Like all countries, not where it should be (Maybe Israel is the one exception?) but at least they have the headstart and have started down the line to fixing it.
Sharing this for the benfit of our more "concerned" friends, but I think many others will be interested in this too. (It's a long video…grab a coffee first)
This YouTuber is an Australian fella with an interest in naval history and in particular Russian history. He did a couple of series on Russian / Soviet Navies which was both intesting and loads of fun.
Your article from 2022 (before the war) just proves my point btw
”The first of the new Tu-160Ms is scheduled for delivery to the Russian Air Force in 2023.”
Narrator Voice: They didn’t
I fully expect to see a squadron of 160vModernised flying above dozens of Armata tanks at next years May parade /s
Edit; looks up the
Kazan Aviation Plant mentioned in article
https://kyivindependent.com/fire-reported-flights-suspended-amid-drone-on-russias-tatarstan/
”Tis just a scratch, will buff right off” the governor was heard saying looking nervously at the window and the fire beyond
Is it really that hard for Americans to say “thanks”?
Trillions spent against Russians over decades only to endup with a Russia First America Last president whom you go out way to make up excuses for here and other threads, maybe Elons DOGE should hire Ukrainians, they sure know how to get bang for buck eh? Or is he persona non grata for spineless “conservatives” now whom are trying to hard to find the non existent “checks and balances” backbones?
So that's the line. Getting ready to blame Zelensky soon.
Trump envoy Keith Kellogg warned of increased escalation risk following Ukrainian strikes on Russian airfields.
“The risk level has significantly risen. Striking key elements of an adversary’s survival system raises the chance of unpredictable responses,” he told Fox News.
Let's ignore the fact they're striking key elements of an adversary's offensive system which has been actively used to terrorise the innocent. A classic Russian you can't hit me back retort.
"Increased escalation" 🤣 Russia have nothing to respond with besides da bomb which they will never do. More pro Putin scutter
I would have considered things like constant food supply chains and heating to be considered "survival systems"; not long range strategic bombers.
If you need bombers to survive, you're doing something wrong.
Also the nonsense that this has "increased the risk". Increased the risk? What are the Russians going to do, wage even more Total War on Ukraine? There's nowhere left for them to go. They have no working Nukes and their best tool currently is fiber-optic drones, and you know the AFU are going to figure out a countermeasure for them. (A cable-cutting drone for example)
Naturally this is designed for domestic US consumption of MAGA and MAGA-ish folk who might not know that Russia isn't really a nuclear-armed state any more and that the current war is likely the very best they can currently do.
Thankfully the drip-feed of Russian talking points to the viewers of Fox News doesn't negate the cunning enterpise of the Ukrainians in crippling the Russian war machine, or stop them.
Another Chip Pan fire
https://militarnyi.com/en/news/fire-breaks-out-at-russian-factory-workshop-producing-engines-for-topol-m-missile-system/
“It has been officially reported that the fire broke out in a production building covering an area of approximately 400 square meters. The cause of the blaze has not yet been determined. As of now, it has been reported that the fire has been localized.”
”Meanwhile, high-power YaMZ-850 engines, boosted up to 1,500 horsepower, are used to arm Russia’s strategic nuclear deterrent forces. Specifically, they are installed on the self-propelled launchers of the RS-12M Topol and RS-24 Yars intercontinental missile systems.”
You say "they have no working nukes". You would need very definite proof of that. Even if only 5% of their nukes work as designed, that can still kill millions.
I know that Putin's nuclear threats are largely empty, but you always have to assume that he could do something disastrous for everyone, including himself, in an extreme situation.
A thing of beauty.
Has any tallied up the total losses now that have been counted through satellite imagery?
This attack will rock the Russians to the core. A good chunk of their air force gone up in smoke.
True, proof would be needed. However they've been in an extreem situation almost constantly since their failure to take Kyiv. The lost their flagship, the Ukrainians have been armed past all manner of "Red Lines", Russia itself has been invaded for the first time since WWII and you even get one event of Putin fleeing from Moscow when the Wagners were bearing down on Moscow.
Add to this, the extremely ram-shackle state of damn near everything the Russians inherited from the Soviet Union, with whatever capability they had being decimated by either Ukrainian attacks, or their own systematic neglect. Whatever they still have is likely too dangerous to be near, let alone actually launch.
Sure, the danger is potentially there, but I think we should be long since past to point of allowing the Russians to use a likely imaginary cudgel to brutalise the civilised world. They know damned well that any real attempt to nuke someone will wipe Moscow off the map, and with it damn near all the remaining functions of the Russian Federation. Russian threats regarding Nukes should be automatically disregard as bluster, and frankly should be ridiculed.
And then what happens if he does?
Those same truck drones can be used to render Russian cities uninhabitable without the fission blasts, for thousands of years by spreading the 7+ tons of plutonium (and hundreds of tons of other isotopes) Ukrainians have
TThey Are definitely nuclear armed and capable....but they will not use nuclear weapons they know they can't or its over for putin and the rest of their conventional army
Macron really is two faced. He greets Zelensky more effusively than I suspect he does his wife, he directs the entire production of 2025 Caesar artillery to Ukraine, he gives them old Mirage aircraft, he gives them the Hammer, which is really great - all good so far - but when the EU proposes ceasing all imports of Orc gas, he and Belgium say nope. Basically he's in the same pro Orc cheap energy camp as Orban and Fico.
Gives with one hand while stabbing in the back with the other.
France for example would face a heavier impact from any move away from Russian LNG since it has five terminals for its delivery in Europe.France increased its Russian LNG imports by 81 percent between 2023 and 2024, giving Russia €2.68 billion ($3 billion) in income, according to the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis.
France for example would face a heavier impact from any move away from Russian LNG since it has five terminals for its delivery in Europe.
France increased its Russian LNG imports by 81 percent between 2023 and 2024, giving Russia €2.68 billion ($3 billion) in income, according to the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis.
https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20250506-eu-unveil-plan-quit-russian-gas-end-2027-lng-imports-energy
France's non military aid to Ukraine is utterly risible - 0.19% of GDP, amongst the lowest in the EU, lowest of course being good old Ireland.
Their military aid is also actually not much, only slightly more than half as much that given by the Netherlands, for example. Lets not forget France has several times done it's best to hinder and prevent aid to Ukraine. When the EU launched it's ammunition for Ukraine program, France blocked it, insisting the shells all had to come from French EU sources.
France is allegedly blocking an EU decision to finance the supply of ammunition to Ukraine, which requires unanimity among member states.…France and Germany blocking €20 billion package for Ukraine - MSN …France joins Poland's push to curb Ukrainian imports
France is allegedly blocking an EU decision to finance the supply of ammunition to Ukraine, which requires unanimity among member states.
…
France and Germany blocking €20 billion package for Ukraine - MSN …
France joins Poland's push to curb Ukrainian imports
https://www.politico.eu/article/slovakia-blocks-latest-aid-package-to-ukraine/
Meloni's got Macron's number, she hates him.
The only time Russia will ever use Nukes is if a country capable of conquering them like China, USA or NATO were to invade and go for the jugular.
It would be justified aswell. A country like Ukraine who you've just invaded taking a small part of Russia isn't going to cause a nuclear war.
I don't think the "get out of Ukraine" survival mechanism has been disabled(also known as "mind your own business")
Ukraine intelligence hacked Tupolev, obtaining a lot of sensitive data and they even replaced their homepage with an owl clutching an Orc aircraft.
NATO is not a country and won't be invading them.
So PAK-DA specifications, materials and capabilities are now another card Ukraine holds. I wonder will US even say thank you when it's handed over.
I think the more useful part of the hack was the info allowing for targeted assassinations of key individuals, like that cruise missile and drone engineer they killed in 2024.
Krasnov is an Orc agent, there will be nothing but anger and criticism at Ukrainian victories. Thanks are not on that table, they aren't even in the same building.
It's an entity that has the ability to invade Russia which is my point. You know what I meant.
NATO won't be invading Russia and neither will China or the US.
Of the 41 hit about half are beyond repair. This attack is more significant then the time they took out the Crimean bridge IMO. And the best part, they've not done their usual 100+ missile strike back in anger yet because their entire bomber fleet was either damaged, destroyed or regrouping
The full extent of French military aid in the context of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine is unknown as many specifics are neither shared by France nor Ukraine
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_military_aid_to_Ukraine_during_the_Russo-Ukrainian_War
At least one Tu-95MS at Olenya was loaded with Kh-101 cruise missiles. It was destroyed.
This really is the icing on the cake. Not only did they take out some expensive missiles but they also saved Ukraine having to use some air defence missiles to stop them.
Or more than likely saved some poor family in an apartment block from tragedy.
I hope Ukraine update their cruise missile destroyed list and include the few they reckon were loaded on the planes.
This attack couldn't have gone anymore perfect could it. And Putin today crying terrorist at Ukraine.
I'm not sure I'd be quite as positive with regards the state of US drone/ counter-drone capabilities. I have a cousin who does infrastructure defense for the feds, and from what he's said, it's a very hapzard and ad hoc affair currently. On the tactical level, the pace of evolution is far outstripping the purchasing/ supply process. The concept of mass attritable assets is anathema to Army logistics, and onerous air space restrictions on installations, make training to acquire the capabilities Ukrainian forces demonstrate extremely challenging.
Have you seen much of shift in tactical concepts for your armored units, to address the proliferation of drones? Have any new SHORAD elements been integrated?
What's with the tyres on the wings and fusilages of the aircraft?
Each holds a warding charm bestowed by a witch.
They are there to supposedly confuse automatic drones that use imagining to verify their target.
