"All of Vlad's forces and all of Vlad's men, are out to put Humpty together again." (2 Viewers)

[Greg Boeser]

However, when anyone says 'idiot politician', one automatically leaps to the top of the list...
(I'm looking at you, USA)...

Only because ours get the best media coverage. Who really cares about some stupid politician in some backwater country like, oh, Britain?

 

[buffnut453]

Only because ours get the best media coverage. Who really cares about some stupid politician in some backwater country like, oh, Britain?

May the Canadian hordes infest your neighboUrhood...and smother you with niceness!

 

[Warspite63]

May the Canadian hordes infest your neighboUrhood...and smother you with niceness!

I appreciate the fervoUr, the coloUr that you add to the conversation. You clearly harboUr nothing but good intentions (am trying to figure out how to add 'aluminIum' to my rambling.....)

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

She's a tool.

The West didn't force Russia into this position, her Imperious leader did.

The West was happily going on about menial things, oblivious about Russia, until Putler launched his special eff-up.

Right, the big irony of this war started by the Russians is that they've brought to life their own fears. Had they not perpetrated this invasion, they wouldn't be staring NATO in the face. They're standing at the corner of Miscalculation St and Unintended Consequences Blvd.

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

Russians do not tolerate a loser.

Yet they seem unable to empower any winners. For all its population and resources, only the Stalinist USSR seems to have sat astride the world stage. All other regimes in that nation have struggled with simple matters like competency and efficiency. And we see what that ended up in. It's perhaps the biggest failed nation/state in history, and soon, I fear, to add another chapter to its dolorous history, once Putin falls as a result of this cruel idiocy.

 

[Admiral Beez]

Catherine the Great did very well. Of course she was Prussian, not Russian, so had a German's head for making things work.

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

I guess the dangers aren't just not he front line...and not just from the enemy. Who needs enemies when you have 'allies' like this:


View: https://twitter.com/igorsushko/status/1620333993341353984

When you lay down with dogs you're bound to get fleas. I bet her propaganda-song changes after this.

 

[GrauGeist]

The other problem with Russia, is that their grasp of history is muddied.

If they had even recalled how the 1st Ukrainian Front fought in WWII against the Germans, they would have had an inkling as to how this special eff-up was going to play out.

If they spun the "way back wheel" to the mid-900s A.D., they would discover Olga of Kyiv, who was one not to be messed with and it's no coincidence that Volodymyr the Great was such a badass - he is her grandson.

 

[Admiral Beez]

If they had even recalled how the 1st Ukrainian Front fought in WWII against the Germans, they would have had an inkling as to how this special eff-up was going to play out.

Had they held their ground in 2014, Putin wouldn't have built up a false idea of Ukrainian resolve.

 

[SaparotRob]

Or had some not sold Ukraine out.

 

[Admiral Beez]

Or had some not sold Ukraine out.

Those some were Ukrainians, presumably selling out their own. Putin figured the same Russian-leaning collaborators and sympathizers amongst Ukraine's own citizenry would once again allow Russia to march in unopposed.

That's why appeasement and short-term concession in exchange for peace never work. Ukraine won't make this mistake again. They won't lay down arms until every Russian is out of Ukraine's pre-2014 borders.

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

Had they held their ground in 2014, Putin wouldn't have built up a false idea of Ukrainian resolve.

Their mistake was trusting Russia in the breakup accords.

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

Regarding Bakhmut, I think both sides are piecemealing troops in to gather reserves for planned strikes. The Russians are racing against further tranches of support for Ukraine, while the Ukrainians are racing against the training-time of the mobilization survivors to stave off further human-wave attacks.

 

[GrauGeist]

We've seen how well Russia trains it's troops. I don't imagine Ukraine is concerned about that.

I honestly believe that Ukraine is just holding the door hard enough to keep the Russians occupied while they are preparing to hit Russia hard.

If you look at the current front lines, Russia's ass is dangling in several places that are ripe for an encirclement and it seems to me that if Russia does a "push" in any of those areas, Ukraine will blitzkrieg them, hard.

 

[SaparotRob]

It seems General Rasputitsa stuck around too long. An unusually warm winter so far. Screwed up Ukraine's momentum but crashed oil prices.

 

[GrauGeist]

I was suspecting Ukraine to launch another offensive in December/January, but I suspect they have something better up their sleeve, which may beat Russia's "spring offensive" to the punch.

Ukraine has great Intel sources and know when and where Russia is moving - at this point, we'll just have to wait and see.

 

[Escuadrilla Azul]

View: https://twitter.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/1620462789730107392

Nothing new under the Sun.

 

[RogerdeLluria]

Anyone in Hollywood wanting to make a children film ????


View: https://twitter.com/DJfromAnnapolis/status/1619793746899636224

 

[WAFU]

I was suspecting Ukraine to launch another offensive in December/January, but I suspect they have something better up their sleeve, which may beat Russia's "spring offensive" to the punch.

Ukraine has great Intel sources and know when and where Russia is moving - at this point, we'll just have to wait and see.

Ukraine does well when it acquires a technical over match of Orc systems

M777 outgunned RuZZian tubed artillery
HIMARS allowed them to destroy RuZZian forward artillery ammunition depots reducing the RuZZian 10:1 shells on target advantage
Western Heavy MBT's should give them the kinetic punch to break through @ Melitopol and force a retreat to Donets and Crimea

 

[RogerdeLluria]

Ukraine and Lockheed were working on a deal for F-16s about a year ago.

Chris answered the question regarding improv ops for the F-16 - it can operate from highways.
It is necessary to conduct an FOD walk prior to it's taking off, but there are countless stretches of roadway where it can deploy from.

Where the MiG-29 is superior to the F-16, is it can operate from most hard surfaces and it's intake system is designed with that in mind. In other words, it's not confined to maintained airfields or highways.

Today I came across some experiences of Indian Air Force (InAF) with MiG-29 that suggest otherwise.

The Mig-29 requires its FOD doors on the intakes because the nose wheel is located ahead of the intakes kicking debris into the intake even from prepared airfields, on the other hand the F-16 nose wheel is located behind the intake, so no issues with debris being kicked up (although debris sucked in may still be an issue in unprepared fields).
Edit: Also, it seems that the Mig-29 intakes sit closer to the ground than the F-16 intake.

Besides that, the InAF discovered that:
the unique FOD doors on the MiG-29's inlets were not stopping material from getting into the engine ducts. Since the doors retracted "up" into the inlet, debris that was kicked up by the nose wheel lodged on or at the bottom of the door seal and then was ingested into the engine when the door opened during the nose gear lifted off the ground during takeoff.

In view of that I think the F-16 will do no worse than Mig-29 even from road stretches.