"All of Vlad's forces and all of Vlad's men, are out to put Humpty together again." (14 Viewers)

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China's thinking as they look wistfully at Taiwan:

"Dammit Russia, did you have to kick the global beehive and bring the West out of its military complacency and unite the world behind a democratically-led territory that broke away from a despotic regime?"
 

Great to hear you're OK Harry


Soooo, the Moskva finally strikes back
 
On the other hand, if they just emphasize that the Taiwanese are Chinese nationalists, that should weaken the West's support. Especially if they publish old WW2 era photos of Chinese soldiers wearing coal scuttle helmets.
Taiwan's not a nationalist, fascist state. It's a working democracy with six presidents, all more or less peacefully elected since founding in 1948, though they did have a long period of martial law ending in 1987, before becoming the freer place we know today. But there's no contest when it comes to comparing levels of freedom, corruption, free enterprise and human rights. China is right to want to stamp that out of Taiwan, as they don't want those ideals infecting their own people. Same goes for Putin, an EU member, working democracy in Ukraine spells disaster for any hopes of keeping Russia as an autocratic, corrupt state.
 
Democratic ideals are like sulfuric acid. They corrode any vessel intended to contain and isolate them. Especially if it's iron clad.
 
I am sure that EVERY country/state is presently studying (except the Vatican) the Russian-Ukraine war. There are indeed a lot of lessons to be learned from.
Besides the event that some foreign power would set up military bases on Taiwan, I don't see any reason for the PRC to attack Taiwan-and Taiwan is fully aware of that.
 
I was watching a podcast which described military conflicts, and the description of the USSR's war in Afghanistan is very eerily similar to the way the war has gone up to this point (it seems tactics have changed recently).
 
There are indeed a lot of lessons to be learned from.
Lesson one. I think Ministries of Defence, General Staff and troops across the West were shocked at just how sh#ttily equipped the supposed all powerful Russian army, air force and navy is. How such a massive misjudgment of capabilities slipped past IDK, maybe it was echoed by the lobbyists selling arms to the West.
 

It slipped past because we haven't seen the Russian Army operate at this scale beyond its borders for many a year. Russia has used Syria as an operational testing area for several years, and their operations there showed a canny ability to achieve their mission aims while disrupting those of the western nations...and yet doing so without provoking escalation. To all apparent evidence, they were adept planners and smart in execution.

You're also missing some of the more nuanced analysis of the different Russian military arms. Few analysts would have claimed that the Russian Navy was "all powerful", although it has useful reach with its tactical missiles. Similarly, readiness levels in the Russian Air Force were also understood, and it was generally accepted that Russian pilots had considerably lower proficiency levels than their western counterparts. That said, the Air Force has been less of a presence than many believed it would be.

The big shock was the performance of the Russian Army but, again, what we've seen in the past 3 months does not reflect the experience of Ukrainian forces fighting in the east since 2014. Russian operations in the Donbas showed much better integration of different effects (e.g. IO, cyber, EW, and kinetic fires). Some of the Russian failings are probably due to lack of unified command, over-ambitious planning, and lack of logistics. Since Russia shifted focus to the east, I think we're seeing improvements to all of those shortfalls....although much of the damage is done, and it will take time to reconstitute the logistics resources to restore operational mobility.
 
Humour aside, how does Ukraine kill this sub? SSKs spend a lot of time on the surface. A single hit from a Bayraktar TB2 should hole the hull.
 
Democratic ideals are like sulfuric acid. They corrode any vessel intended to contain and isolate them. Especially if it's iron clad.
Well they benefit people, so they gain traction. Ironically the fact that they require such extraordinary efforts to suppress shows this. The only problem comes in time of crisis and diversity, ensuring people understand why this system is important and worth defending.

I will not touch this anymore because I'm almost certain I got this suspicious looking red-dot right between my eyes that looks like those laser pointers right as I started typing this
 

You're right in all this, but with the CCP controlling the Chinese media as tightly as they do, it won't be hard to convince the Chinese public to support an invasion if the government there decides upon that course of action -- or at least convince dissidents to stay quiet.
 
Meanwhile (assuming its not fake) Chinese state TV is already partitioning post war Russia.
 

Rumors are starting to circulate that a few (one of the rumors said 11 pilots) Ukrainian pilots are already training on F-16, but I have yet to see a credible source.
 
Humour aside, how does Ukraine kill this sub? SSKs spend a lot of time on the surface. A single hit from a Bayraktar TB2 should hole the hull.

Being unfamiliar with Russian subs in general, I had to look this up.

Type 636 submarine design

The submarine consists of six watertight compartments separated by transverse bulkheads in a pressurised double-hull. The design and the submarine's optimal reserve buoyancy lead to increased survivability if the submarine is holed, even with one compartment and two adjacent ballast tanks flooded.



Not sure if the four smart micro-munitions the Bayraktar carries (50 lbs apiece) would be able to overcome this ... I guess a lot would depend upon the damage-control practiced by the sub's crew.
 

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