"All of Vlad's forces and all of Vlad's men, are out to put Humpty together again." (7 Viewers)

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My view on what Putin wants is

A: all independent states that were part of the USSR plus Poland
B: functional control of all the countries of the Warsaw Pact
C: "cooperative," that is obedient, governments in western Europe, especially Germany
 

Ukraine strikes deep inside Russia, destroys four helicopters

In a rare cross-border strike, Ukrainian Special Operations Forces, in coordination with the Main Directorate of Intelligence and Rocket and Artillery Forces, successfully destroyed four Russian helicopters in Belgorod region, according to an official statement. The strike eliminated two Ka-52...
defence-blog.com
 
Thumpalumpacus said:
Further to this:


Sparked in large measure by concerns that the U.S. is aligning itself closer to Russia, receding from its traditional ties with NATO and the stability of U.S. weapons exports, the European Union has created a new initiative to increase defense spending and drastically boost local arms production. The move to 'buy local' could effectively freeze the U.S. out of billions of dollars in potential arms sales.

Rankled by U.S. President Donald Trump's imposing tariffs and repeatedly saying that Canada should become the 51st state, Ottawa is deep into talks about joining this initiative.

The goals of the new "European Defense Readiness 2030" plan were laid out Wednesday in a white paper issued by the alliance. The initiative calls for increasing defense spending, simplifying regulations and streamlining industrial programs. It seeks the creation of an 800 billion Euro ($872 billion) pool of money to boost European arms production. That includes a suggested 1.5% of GDP increase in defense budgets anticipated to raise 650 billion Euros (about $709 billion) and 150 billion Euros ($163 billion) for the new Security Action for Europe (SAFE) loan program "to help countries invest in key defense areas like missile defense, drones, and cyber security," according to the EU.

New European Union Plan To Boost Local Arms Production Would Freeze U.S. Out Of Billions

Canada, angered by Trump's tariffs and rhetoric, may also join this new initiative as concerns over reliance on U.S. weapons grow.
www.twz.com
Click to expand...
This only goes to prove that when we all said that the USA needs to be careful as other countries have options, good options, we were right. The only loser will be the US defence industry, the main winners, every other defence industry, be they European or South Korean.

There are precious few areas where the USA have a definite lead. Those that currently exist will soon be caught up.
 
Glider said:
This only goes to prove that when we all said that the USA needs to be careful as other countries have options, good options, we were right. The only loser will be the US defence industry, the main winners, every other defence industry, be they European or South Korean.

There are precious few areas where the USA have a definite lead. Those that currently exist will soon be caught up.
Click to expand...

And in all the new remote controlled technology the USA is fast dropping behind Ukraine and those countries that are fully supporting it who get all the tech nohow as thanks.
 
Warspite63 said:
Something tells me that the 'imposing' part is where this plan will crumble.....
Click to expand...

And the ramping up of non US aid to Ukraine indicates that Ukraine has REAL friends in the free world.

I would not be surprised if the "free world" suddenly decides that they are far better off as a new alliance with Ukraine as a full member (and Taiwan, Mexico and Panama as well) tells the US to pull its head in, that Zelensky is now the leader of the free world and the instant the US sends troops to invade any free world member all Canada's electricity, oil and gas control systems will be destroyed to prevent supply of those essentials to the US, same with the bridges on the Alaska highway and probably some other retaliation - like no US aircraft to fly in to or over Canada. That leaves the US what is politely called screwed. It would harm Canada but it would destroy the US.

Plus all the FW countries immediately ban the US dollar as a trade currency and all NATO members kill the production of parts being produced for the US military. That kills the F35 for years and multiple other weapons.

Am I pessimistic? Maybe, but I can see US is preparing to load the last straw on the camel. When that happens the results will be spectacular and the US will be petitioning all those countries their leadership call "shit holes" for food and fuel aid.
 
MiTasol said:
Am I pessimistic? Maybe, but I can see US is preparing to load the last straw on the camel. When that happens the results will be spectacular and the US will be petitioning all those countries their leadership call "shit holes" for food and fuel aid.
Click to expand...

I can understand your anger, but don't let it cloud your thinking. The US is the largest producer of oil in the world, and is probably self-sufficient in food.
 
Thumpalumpacus said:
I can understand your anger, but don't let it cloud your thinking. The US is the largest producer of oil in the world, and is probably self-sufficient in food.
Click to expand...
Oil is a complicated business both in terms of what comes out of the ground and the commercial relationships that have built up over the last 150 or so years.

The USA may be the largest producer of crude oil,

Oil Production by Country - Worldometer

List of world countries by Yearly Oil Production in million cubic feet (MMcf)
www.worldometers.info

But it still needs to import substantial quantities of crude just to keep its refineries occupied. And what it produces as crude is currently not all capable of being refined in US refineries, or to produce all the end products in the quantities required. Hence the need for imports.

How much oil does the United States import (and why)?

About 60% of the crude oil that runs through U.S. refineries is extracted right here at home. However, our refineries run on many different types of crude oil, some of which we don’t produce here or can’t economically transport. In those cases, we use imports.
www.afpm.org

"Re-tooling refineries to process solely U.S. crude oil (light crude) would cost billions — a risky investment that would take decades to permit, construct and eventually pay off. We lack the infrastructure (like pipelines) needed to cost effectively supply U.S crude oil and refined products to every region. Even if the economics of re-tooling our facilities worked, it can take close to a decade to permit and build pipelines in the United States."


So to be truly self sufficient in the longer term, the USA would need to invest heavily in refining and transportation capabilities and the US consumer will see the cost of many things increasing substantially.

It is a lot more complicated than Trumps call "Drill, baby, drill" at least in the short to medium term.
 
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