I have to say, that looks like something from either Get Smart or Gilligan's Island
Russia Invades Ukraine
- RTH10260
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Russia Invades Ukraine
When all you have to work with is abandoned Russian hardware
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Russia Invades Ukraine
Those Ukrainians continue to impress with not only their determination but also their cleverness.
“If everyone fought for their own convictions there would be no war.” ― Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace
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Russia firing ageing cruise missiles because stocks are depleted, MoD suggests
Intelligence update said missiles from 1980s stripped of nuclear warheads ‘unlikely to achieve reliable effects’
Guardian staff and agency
Sat 26 Nov 2022 10.39 GMT
Russia is firing ageing cruise missiles stripped of their nuclear warheads at Ukrainian targets because Vladimir Putin’s stocks are so depleted, the Ministry of Defence has suggested.
An intelligence update from the British MoD on Saturday said the desperate improvisation by the Russian president’s struggling forces are “unlikely to achieve reliable effects”.
The evidence cited is pictures of apparently shot down AS-15 Kent air-launched cruise missiles, which were said to have been designed in the 1980s as a nuclear delivery system.
The MoD said the nuclear warheads had probably been replaced with ballast, with the Kremlin’s hope probably that the missiles will distract Ukrainian air defences.
“Although such an inert system will still produce some damage through the missile’s kinetic energy and any unspent fuel, it is unlikely to achieve reliable effects against intended targets,” a statement said.
“Whatever Russia’s intent, this improvisation highlights the level of depletion in Russia’s stock of long-range missiles.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/ ... d-suggests
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Insert scene from “Red Storm Rising” by Tom Clancy (before he became a complete arse).
Where a Soviet strike force launched a 100 of these to soak up the USN carrier group Missile defence before another force launched the effective missiles.
Where a Soviet strike force launched a 100 of these to soak up the USN carrier group Missile defence before another force launched the effective missiles.
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His best book.Dave from down under wrote: ↑Mon Nov 28, 2022 11:28 pm Insert scene from “Red Storm Rising” by Tom Clancy (before he became a complete arse).
Where a Soviet strike force launched a 100 of these to soak up the USN carrier group Missile defence before another force launched the effective missiles.
Supreme Commander, Imperial Illuminati Air Force
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Russia Invades Ukraine
From the chapter: Dance of the Vampires.Dave from down under wrote: ↑Mon Nov 28, 2022 11:28 pm Insert scene from “Red Storm Rising” by Tom Clancy (before he became a complete arse).
Where a Soviet strike force launched a 100 of these to soak up the USN carrier group Missile defence before another force launched the effective missiles.
For those that don't know: "VAMPIRE, VAMPIRE, VAMPIRE!!!!!!" is not a call you want to hear over the 1MC when on a ship....
It means incoming missiles...
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He's got the answers to ease my curiosity, He dreamed a god up and called it Christianity"
Trent Reznor
He's got the answers to ease my curiosity, He dreamed a god up and called it Christianity"
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There is a YouTube from a USN control centre from the gulf war prior to a vampire coming in..
The brace for impact is something
The brace for impact is something
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Russia Invades Ukraine
What I think is a fascinating interview with a British citizen who went to Ukraine to fight:
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Russia Invades Ukraine
Explosions rock two Russian airbases far from Ukraine frontline
Blasts at military facilities raise possibility Kyiv has found way to target Russia’s long-range bombers
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/ ... ne-bombers
Blasts at military facilities raise possibility Kyiv has found way to target Russia’s long-range bombers
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/ ... ne-bombers
Russian media reports and video posted to social media indicated an explosion occurred early on Monday morning at the Engels-2 airbase in Russia’s Saratov region that hosts Tu-95 bombers that have taken part in cruise missile strikes against Ukraine.
Another explosion took place at the Dyagilevo military airbase near Ryazan, a city less than 150 miles from Moscow. Three people were killed and five wounded after a fuel truck exploded, Russian state media reported. That base also hosts Tu-95 and Tu-22M long-range bombers.
Hours later, Russia launched its latest missile barrage against Ukraine, the country’s defence ministry said. According to media reports, Russia had launched more than 100 cruise missiles from land and sea. Ukrainians were making their way to bomb shelters in anticipation of the missile attack.
If confirmed as a Ukrainian operation, the strike on the Engels airbase would be the most daring attack behind Russian lines to date. The airbase is a crucial site for Russian air force operations against Ukraine and for the country’s strategic nuclear forces. It has a nuclear weapons storage bunker with warheads that can be deployed on Russia’s long-range strategic bombers.
“If everyone fought for their own convictions there would be no war.” ― Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace
Russia Invades Ukraine
I'd guess it was an internal operation, by military trying to either sabotage the war or cook up a pretext.
But I'm cynical like that.
But I'm cynical like that.
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Russia Invades Ukraine
While Russia is certainly capable of doing a "false flag" attack to whip up sentiment on the war, it is extremely unlikely (to the point of being inconceivable) that they would damage any of the bombers in their fleet, particularly after last Friday.
Bombers are a priceless national security asset, and nobody does anything to risk any of these aircraft. Bomber pilots (I know one highly decorated bomber pilot quite well) are typically the most cautious and by-the-book pilots that ever climbed into the front seat. That's because the loss of even a single aircraft is a significant reduction in operational capability for the air force as a whole, when you look at how few of these aircraft are available, despite their importance.
Russia has two main intercontinental bombers: the 1950s era propeller driven Tu-95 "Bear" and the Tu-160 "Blackjack," a quick-and-dirty clone of the USAF B-1B. They also fly the smaller 1960s era Tu-22M "Backfire," which is basically a hunk of junk for many reasons. The "Bear" is the workhorse of the bomber fleet, regularly running missions along the Alaskan coast to see what we'll do. They've got about 40 Tu-95 Bears, about 16 of the Tu-160 Blackjacks and around 60 of the Tu-22M Backfires. That's quite a bit smaller than the US bomber fleet. US goals for fleet readiness are around 80% of aircraft, but it's hard to believe Russian institutional incompetence would deliver readiness anywhere close to that number. Assume half of those could actually get into the air on any given day. Maybe.
If an attack were to damage, say, 6 of the Tu-95 Bears, especially if the attack damaged operational aircraft (versus "hangar queens" sitting on the ramp slowly being cannibalized for parts), that would be a disaster, as a significant portion of the available bomber fleet would be offline for an extended period of time, especially if the explosions were able to blow up cockpits or multiple engines. The Tu-95 engines are a marvel of 1950s engineering, the most powerful turboprop engines ever built, but I can't imagine that they have many spare engines at this point, and the chances that they could produce more are low.
There is no internal political gain worth damaging one of your main strategic deterrent vehicles, especially if you claim you're at war with NATO, as Russian propaganda claims.
Why is this even less likely after last Friday? That's because that's the date that the US unveiled publicly for the first time the B-21 "Raider" next-generation stealth bomber. They rolled out a near-production test article, and the program calls for a substantial number of these planes to be built, far more than the 20 or so B-2 "Spirit" (the original stealth bomber) now in service. The Russians won't be able to close this new "bomber gap" because they lack the technology and they lack the money. So they'll have to preserve the few bombers they have left and hope for the best.
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Russia Invades Ukraine
Pure speculation: I would not be astonished to hear the best kept secret of the war, that Russia had moved some of their heavy mobile missile launchers into the Kharkov region, Ukraine got their hands on a pristine unit or two when moving forward, was able to learn, train and operate them and "sent the missiles back home". And the US will have the remainder now to study.
The fiction alternative: Ukraine is operating Mossad style within Russia and was able to get their hands on a unguarded and unattended unit of missile launchers and fired them from within...
The fiction alternative: Ukraine is operating Mossad style within Russia and was able to get their hands on a unguarded and unattended unit of missile launchers and fired them from within...
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Russia Invades Ukraine
A quick look at Google Maps suggests that Engels-2 is 300 miles (500 km) away from the Russia-Ukraine border. I'm not sure how many ground-launched missiles other than cruise missiles have that kind of range. And a flight path that long could trigger missile defense systems. You would probably want to use shorter-range missiles, since there would be less time to intercept them.RTH10260 wrote: ↑Mon Dec 05, 2022 12:30 pm Pure speculation: I would not be astonished to hear the best kept secret of the war, that Russia had moved some of their heavy mobile missile launchers into the Kharkov region, Ukraine got their hands on a pristine unit or two when moving forward, was able to learn, train and operate them and "sent the missiles back home". And the US will have the remainder now to study.
The fiction alternative: Ukraine is operating Mossad style within Russia and was able to get their hands on a unguarded and unattended unit of missile launchers and fired them from within...
I would guess that the correct explanation is halfway between the two that you posed. I think Russian-speaking Ukrainian special forces troops have been operating in Russia since the war started, potentially even before. However, I don't think they stole missiles from other bases in Russia. I suspect that they were able to smuggle some of their own missiles in from Ukraine.
That's apparently what they did with the truck bomb that took out the Kerch Bridge. According to reports I read, that truck traveled a random circuitous route through Russia and several other countries with different drivers and different manifests on a weeks-long odyssey before it finally went over the Kerch Bridge. Like the bridge, the air base is a symbolic target of Russian might (though it is where they're staging the cruise missile attacks from), so it's more important to do the attack at all than it is to do it now. I'd view it as something akin to the Dolittle raid on Tokyo in WWII -- good for US morale, bad for Japanese morale, with minimal permanent damage to Japanese cities.
Following that mission profile, it's possible that truck(s) carrying missiles made it through the border with Russia some time ago and the Ukrainians have been patiently waiting and planning until they could carry out an attack with a high probability of success. Certainly, there are enough corrupt Russians in the border guards to look the other way when a truck allegedly full of bootleg vodka was headed from Kyiv into Russia.
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Russia Invades Ukraine
We haz alibi
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Doggy doggy, here take a bite
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NYT is reporting that these were unmanned drone attacks, launched from Ukrainian territory. Ukraine says the airfields were targets of the attack; two planes were destroyed and several planes were damaged.
Russia says the drones were Soviet-era drones (?); Russian defenses engaged the drones; and two planes were slightly damaged.
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/12/05 ... sian-media
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Possibly a pair of Tu-141 "Strizh" reconnaissance drones modified.
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/u ... sia-claims
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/4 ... in-croatia
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Top US conservatives pushing Russia’s spin on Ukraine war, experts say
Some of the Kremlin’s most blatant falsehoods aimed at undercutting US aid are promoted by major figures on the right
Peter Stone
Tue 6 Dec 2022 09.00 GMT
Ever since Russia launched its brutal war in Ukraine the Kremlin has banked on American conservative political and media allies to weaken US support for Ukraine and deployed disinformation operations to falsify the horrors of the war for both US and Russian audiences, say disinformation experts.
Some of the Kremlin’s most blatant falsehoods about the war aimed at undercutting US aid for Ukraine have been promoted by major figures on the American right, from Holocaust denier and white supremacist Nick Fuentes to ex-Trump adviser Steve Bannon and Fox News star Tucker Carlson, whose audience of millions is deemed especially helpful to Russian objectives.
On a more political track, House Republican Freedom Caucus members such as Paul Gosar, Marjorie Taylor Greene and Scott Perry – who in May voted with 54 other Republican members against a $40bn aid package for Ukraine, and have raised other concerns about the war – have proved useful, though perhaps unwitting, Kremlin allies at times.
Pro-Moscow video materials from the network RT (formerly Russia Today), which early this year shuttered its US operations, have been featured on Rumble, a video sharing platform popular with conservatives that last year received major financing from a venture capital firm co-founded by recently elected Republican Ohio senator JD Vance and backed by billionaire Peter Thiel.
As Republicans will control the House in 2023, the influence of these Ukraine aid critics in Congress and Moscow-friendly media on the right led by Carlson is expected to increase. But analysts say they’re unlikely to block a Biden administration request to Congress in mid-November for over $37bn in emergency aid for Ukraine, although they may try to pare it back.
Republican House minority leader Kevin McCarthy, who looks poised to become speaker in January, threatened pre-election that if the GOP won the majority, it wouldn’t back a “blank check” for Ukraine.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/ ... kraine-war
Russia Invades Ukraine
Zelensky is Time Magazines Person of the Year
https://time.com/person-of-the-year-202 ... ne-choice/
https://time.com/person-of-the-year-202 ... ne-choice/
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Russia Invades Ukraine
neonzx wrote: ↑Wed Dec 07, 2022 9:42 am Zelensky is Time Magazines Person of the Year
https://time.com/person-of-the-year-202 ... ne-choice/
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x5
x5
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Russia Invades Ukraine
They lost a y though.Slim Cognito wrote: ↑Wed Dec 07, 2022 11:06 amneonzx wrote: ↑Wed Dec 07, 2022 9:42 am Zelensky is Time Magazines Person of the Year
https://time.com/person-of-the-year-202 ... ne-choice/