But Why?

I want to immediately state that I am no tank officer, but I am also not as dumb in ground warfare as I come across, if you know what I mean. So, before commenting on The National Interest tanks' rankings, I want to remind you what one of their contributors ... from Israel and ties to IDF wrote this in early 2025:

While the latest T-72 and T-90 MBT variants may be more sophisticated than earlier models, they really have not performed well in Ukraine. The rate at which these tanks have been destroyed by Ukrainian weaponry is alarming. To make matters worse, it is doubtful that Moscow will be able to replenish its MBT stockpiles anytime soon.

Here is her CV and you may have already guessed she--she is a militant ignoramus and hack which spreads 404 propaganda. Judge for yourself--a classic degree mill product with no clue about combined arms operations and operational planning. Judging by the "performance" of IDF (mind you--they are allegedly "professionals") which has its ass handed to it in the most humiliating fashion in Southern Lebanon by Hezbollah, Israel is not that good, to put it mildly, in anything which doesn't involve atrocity, bombing with impunity and, generally, they are nothing more than a collection of punitive battalions (and brigades) whose main training is in genocide. Real war? Not so much. 

So, The National Interest comes up with this recent rating of world's tanks. And puts T-72 at the first place as the best tank in the world. Well, that's fine and here TNI staff makes this assertion:

1. T-72 (Soviet Union / Russia) This old Soviet tank may be seen as an odd choice for “best in the world.” But the fact remains that it checks all the boxes for an effective tank. It is used by dozens of countries, making its supply chains redundant and durable. It is easy to operate. And it is very cheap. The Russians have found that their war in Ukraine has not gone well by using either its T-90M MBT or its aforementioned T14 Armata. The T-72 has kept the Russians in the fight. What’s more, these systems are easy to mass produce and when they’re lost (so many have been lost in combat), it doesn’t really matter, because Russia can quite easily produce many more. 

The immediate question which arises is where the hell did the staff of this magazine, which continues to regurgitate CIA and Pentagon's fairy tales about SMO, get this idea highlighted in yellow? Who told them that? Ukies? Sure, Washington is dumb enough to believe any kind of shit, but how about the fact of basic (forget about serious expanded) attrition modelling of (armor) combat which requires a set of verified serious inputs? That is to say--requires PROFESSIONAL qualifications for assessment of the data sets which ARE critical in 24/7 modelling of the combat, which is in the foundation of the operational work of, say, Main Operational Directorate (GOU) of Russian General Staff? 

We, of course, cannot discount a fever pitch coping ongoing across the US media and military-political circles after yet another military humiliation for the US and Israel, but words do not provide anymore the palliative they used to and, obviously, statements about Russian tank losses (not that Russians do not sustain losses, they surely do) and especially about T-90M Proryv, which IS the best MBT in the world now, are nothing more than trying to shape narrative which has nothing in common with the reality. For starters, Russians use primarily (not exclusively) three types of MBTs: T-72B and its iteration T-72B3, T-90M Proryv and a few T-80BVM. Of course, Russians used even T-54 when necessary as self-propelled guns from ZOP (Defended Firing Position) and as a moving mine with devastating results for VSU strong points. And here is a clue from TNI. Highlighted in yellow is data for T-72 (whatever that means) and in green, of course, M1 Abrams.

The question--what T-72 are they talking about, because T-72B3 and T-72B3M, a mainstay of Russian tank forces, have this:

First batches were upgraded to T-72B3 standard, also known as T-72B3 obr (obrazets--model) 2011 in Russia. Many vehicles retained their V-84 engine. The T-72B3 upgrade includes the 2A46M-5 gun, Kontakt-5 era on glacis and turret front, improved autoloader, Sosna-U gunner's day and thermal sight with monitor for commander and various other upgrades. Easily recognizable by the Sosna-U sight while retaining the rubber side skirts. T-72B3M Further improved upgrade package, also known as T-72B3 obr 2016 in Russia. This adds the large and distinctive new side skirts, slat armor and Relikt ERA to the turret sides. There is also a PK PAN sight for the commander with day and thermal optics. All T-72B3M include the more powerful V-92S2F engine and drivetrain upgrades.

Note: T-72B3 has been produced since 2011 (11 years before SMO) while T-72B3M since 2016 (6 years before SMO). So, how many altogether of this tanks did Russia have--over 1,700. No, not some conservation (reserve) assets--all moving and fighting tanks. But as you can see yourself all of them have a very good and modern sight and fire-control systems. Did Russians use simply T-72Bs? Absolutely, remember the one which blew away Abrams' turret from the first shot? Yep, that's T-72B. 

Hm, why do I see thermal sight, but, back to our goats, so to speak, because, obviously, Russians produced thousands upon thousands (9,000 by different estimates) of T-72Bs and how many have been upgraded to B3? A lot. And then comes another 1,500 or so of T-90s and, its latest iteration of T-90M Proryv. This one is a state-of-the-art fully netcentric machine and it has real and positive combat experience ... yes, look at Abrams' "experience" "Iraq/Afghanistan", while for some reason omitting M1 Abrams "experiences" in 404. Those have been very painful "experiences" both against Russian tanks and against loitering munitions, so much so that whatever the advantages M1 might have had (not really) have been completely annulled and ... 

Nobody gives a shit how much M1 Abrams costs--neither it, nor vaunted Merkava are tanks designed for modern warfare and, pardon my Russian rah-rah and military background, but for people trying to come up with all kinds of rankings--try for starters internalize what COFM (Correlation Of Forces and Means) is and why one may start from this point.

In reality, however, three best tanks in the world today are 1. T-90M Proryv, 2. T-72B3M and 3. T-72B3. The rest is for consumers of Kool Aid provided by Kiev regime. 

This is from yesterday. And yes--one T-90M Proryv took ...47 (Forty Seven!) drone strikes and stopped only when hit the anti-tank mine. 

For Those Who ...

 ... "buried" tanks after watching too many videos with drones. Here is a work by Russian tank platoon (T-80 and T-72B3). 

ROK (Recon-Fire Complex) at work: 404 armored column tries to "attack", it is detected (naturally), identified and targeting is provided, tank platoon (3 tanks usually, + 1 could be a platoon CO tank) rolls out. First hit at the leading vehicle, stopping of the column, after that just regular combat work. All while correcting fire from different vantage points by UAVs. Keep in mind what tank IS? It is essentially a self-propelled gun with better protection than usual ... self-propelled guns. To demonstrate--recently one of the Russian T-90Ms sustained ... 43 (forty three!!) strikes by 404 drones, it stopped ONLY after rolling over anti-tank mine. Later it was evacuated by BREM. 

Now to this: 

The Western media has abandoned the principles of fair journalism when covering the Ukraine conflict, Russia said during an informal meeting of the UN Security Council on Friday. Russian Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN Anna Evstigneeva said foreign reporters created “a positive and even romanticized image” of the 2014 Western-backed coup in Kiev, a series of events that Moscow says laid the groundwork for the current conflict.

They didn't abandon anything--they never had those principles in the first place. Western legacy media are a collection of war criminals, war mongers, a cover up for pedophiles and other Satanists among "elites". That's who they are, top-bottom. Today it is up to alternative media to expose what has been done to modern West and who rules it. Here is an example. 

An open Zionist who serves Israel under the guise of the US "ambassador" pretends that he is a diplomat--he is not. He is a brainwashed by the heresy of Scofield so called Bible fanatic and Tucker exposed him. 

Now, I am very busy today, so it is an Open Thread of sorts. Go at it. 

For Enthusiasts Of Tactical Minutiae ...

 ... as Russian tankers say--the main threat to tanks remains ... no, not drones--good ol' anti-tank mines. At least that's true for Russian tanks. Meanwhile, morons from Deutsche Welle decided to figure out, German Defense Ministry "ignored" their request for comments, on their own why self-proclaimed "best tanks in the world", you know those latest version of Leopards suck. 

You don't need to know German, but DW dumbasses went to 404 side (seems legit, these were 404 crews which burned in those tanks) to figure this out. Wrong choice, though. 404 is well known to be, together with CIA, MI6 and other orgs of this nature, the main sources of all kind of pseudo-military BS, the Kool Aid gladly consumed by those who still cannot accept the fact that NATO's weaponry is from 1990s and it failed miserably in supporting Nazi criminal 404 regime. 

Now, latest for payouts to Russian military personnel. You don't need to know Russian. 

The highest pay is for capturing (not destroying) intact MLRS and tanks. The rest is for destroying hardware. You may ask why such a downgrade for combat aircraft. Easy, every combat aircraft NATO provided to 404 is an easy target for Russia's VKS. Fact is, all of them, be that F-35, F-16, Eurofighter or F-15 are outranged and are not designed to fight over the battlefield of 2025. Simple as that. I speak about this in my latest video which should be up shortly. 

British "Military" ...

... a euphemism for non-existent army and barely surviving, once glorious, Royal Navy is a misnomer. Nor grossly exaggerated in its rather "real" intel capability MI6 and other orgs of this nature filled with credentialed morons and psychopaths, can fill the void left after discovering that the halcyon days of British Empire are gone forever and UK's future lies now with decaying Europe and whatever the morsels from the table of itself struggling American big guy it may get. In Russia, orgs such as RUSI or Chatham House are used now as memes akin to "British Scientists" and such a use is totally justified. 

So, whenever anyone advances a proposition that British "military" can have any competent opinion on warfare it should be viewed as a bad joke. 

The British military expected to see more of Russia's 'prestige equipment,' like T-14 tanks, fighting in Ukraine, officer says. A British Army officer said that the military was surprised it did not see more advanced Russian weaponry, like some of its best tanks, on the battlefield in Ukraine. "We probably would've expected to have seen more of their prestige equipment," Maj. Maguire told Business Insider, speaking on the condition that only his rank and last name be used. He previously helped lead the UK-led training for Ukrainian soldiers and also produced reports for the UK and allies on tactics in Ukraine and the lessons Western forces could draw from them. One example he gave of Russian equipment that hasn't been seen is the T-14, considered Russia's most advanced tank. That kind of warfighting equipment is what the British military sort of sees as "the pacing threat equipment that we train against."

Major Maguire should not only stop lying (or parading himself as ignoramus) but also try to get REAL military education which requires way more than attending a vocational school at Sandhurst, a 40 week-long "military" course, pompously known as "military academy" or pushing oneself through all kinds of essentially civilian programs to get a "commission". British training of 404 soldiers is known as committing atrocities and acts of outright terrorism. In terms of real warfare, let alone armored warfare--there is a reason why British withdrew remaining Challenger tanks to Western 404 because this piece of shit, which was presented by British "military" as some awesome achievement, is a jalopy not suited for real war and is an embarrassment to tank warfare. Meanwhile, T-14 Armata saw and continues to see active service in SMO, and as I spoke about it yesterday--new generation Arena Active Armor is now being installed on Russian tanks. 

But in general, it is so cute when NATO "officers" most of who have zero grasp of modern warfare and ZERO academic and combat experience in real war, pass judgements in their feeble attempts to cope and suppress emotions on the account of NATO being nothing more than a paper tiger. Those Western officers with honor, integrity and courage, such as Colonel Jacques Baud, among others, are being persecuted because they pointed out a stupefying level of military-intel incompetence in NATO. Per UK--its military "capability" extends no further than state terrorism. With officers like this--they can only fight civilians. 

P.S. T-90M Proryv IS the best tank in the world, no discussion. 

Keep An Eye ...

 ... on this video. 

This is Russian T-80 within ROK circuit wiping out the point of UAV control by 404 terrorists. But the significance of this video apart from full tactical awareness is in the fact that Russians do not mind head on tank battles with 404--it is just that they don't have any anymore and even if to imagine opposite, any 404 armor columns is dead on march today, INCLUDING from the fire of Russian tanks which can see the tactical episode at the very limit of their ballistic range, which is around 10-kilometers (give and take) for smooth-bore guns of Russian tanks. Tank warfare is evolving and tanks are here to stay, if anyone wonders. 

Meanwhile, some guy explained perfectly the work of Russian SVR and General Staff))

A good summary. 

I Already Expressed ...

 ... my displeasure with wrong portrayal of my ... drinking. I drink Jack ON THE ROCKS. Where is ice, I ask you))

On a more serious note. The fate of 404 tanks. 

Nima asked me today a poignant question, on how Russians view 404 soldiers. Here is response of my friend Colonel Oleg Shalandin to butcher Zaluzhny.  

I will oppose Zaluzhny.

1. Capitulation will most likely happen; we know how to coerce. If you do not want to negotiate amicably, it will be unpleasant.

2. Our terms have long been conveyed to Kyiv; Zaluzhny cannot be unaware of them. Fulfill our terms (they are achievable), and we will establish peace by signing a treaty. In that case, you will preserve your people and state. And we do not care how you treat us; you crossed the point of no return long ago.

3. Do not turn everything upside down with cheap manipulations—when you were preparing to join NATO, it was you who threatened us, and we warned you. And forget the myth that you are protecting Europe from Russia; you know the truth.

4. Only we can give you security guarantees, no one else.

5. You will never be able to defeat us; practice has shown this. You have already committed betrayal by engaging in a hopeless military confrontation—betrayal, first and foremost, of the Ukrainian people. I will remain silent about us; it is clear enough.

6. There is no strength in your soldiers, let alone military valor; there is only ordinary hatred and villainy—do not confuse these concepts. Although they have been elevated to the rank of valor.

7. Peace will indeed come through victory. Or through surrender. Only then will you rid yourselves of illusions. 

Ridding oneself of illusions is a valuable gain.

Enough said by decorated combat veteran and a man with superb operational and STEM background. 

Yes, We Know ...

 ... it takes "5 hours for Russian tanks to be in Kiev", per Mr.Trump. Obviously, Donnie has a very peculiar relations with geography and with the movement of armor columns on march, but here is what's wrong with his "beautiful" assessment. For starters--here is a theoretical and shortest distance from Sumy to Kiev at which Russians theoretically can "march".

As you can see from the map "as crow flies" distance is around 300 kilometers, if to imagine that Russians attended DJT school of advanced military studies and want to cover this distance on tracks (and wheels) alone--doable, but kills motor resource of the hardware--the speed of the armor column of such nature could be, and that is a good result, on average about 25-30 kilometers per hour. So, if we take 300 kilometers and divide it by 30, we get around 10 hours. But that is theory. 

If DJT wants to have an idea (of course he doesn't, he knows it all) what does it mean to move motor rifle battalion on march, here is a good primer from ... Soviet Defense Ministry on how to plan (battalion is the first tactical unit which actually has own staff) and move in column. It is in Russian, but a lot of it is understood in terms of CO Decision, planning and shit like that. Simple stuff, no math is needed for DJT. 

This is BEFORE the battalion does anything with piu piu and other exciting shit. A model of moving a whole damn tank army when need be--is a 320 kilometer march (in one day this formation of 951 tanks and self-propelled guns managed to cover more than 100 km) of Pavel Rotmistrov's 5th Tank Army which engaged Hausser's panzer Corps literally on the go. Rotmistrov's army lost almost a third of its tanks during this march. Pay attention to this chapter of Hausser's life--a reason why the US Army has no idea about the war on the Eastern Front and strongly believes that it won WW II. 

Following the war, Hausser participated in the work of the U.S. Army Historical Division, where under the guidance of Franz Halder, German generals wrote World War II operational studies for the U.S. Army, first as POWs and then as employees. 

But I digress. So, you get the idea about what it would be to move an army size formation to Kiev. Granted Russians want to take the city of almost 3 million, which they don't--only American generals who listened to Wehrmacht and SS generals fairy tales would believe that Russians want Kiev. But I am on record--operational planning? Nah, they don't know what this is. 

Meanwhile, the warm up at the front is ongoing today--Konstantinovka-Pokrovsk axes. 

More from today;

You see, Russians made a slight and very pleasant mistake, they slightly OVERestimated the staying power of the VSU and broke through faster than anticipated. Hey, not bad. What you see on the maps is called putting the enemy on the split and this exhausting pattern will continue until the order is given. What this order will be, we just have to wait and see. Tomorrow Donnie will be trying to "scare" Putin, LOL)) Donnie, get real military professionals into your Cabinet, albeit it is too late now. 

UVZ

This acronym strikes terror into the hearts of Russia's enemies. 

The acronym stands for Uralvagonzavod--literally Ural Railcars Works. And, boy, look at them those "railcars" produced in the city of Nizhny Tagil. 

Not only those "railcars", starting from legendary T-34s, first of which rolled off the conveyor in 1941, to T-72s to T-90M Proryv, continue to roll off assembly lines today, but UVZ produced now undeniably the best tanks in the world--real combat in SMO left no doubts about it. Moreover, Russia is unbeatable in terms of quality and numbers of these tanks produced. By a mile, more than whole NATO combined. Today, UVZ celebrates its 88th anniversary. These are state-of-the-art, netcentric tanks which are capable to take on any self-proclaimed "best" Western tanks and defeat them, in fact--they did it many times already. 

Dmitry Orlov in his latest, symptomatically titled Uncontrolled Chaos, notes today:

It was a disaster 80 years in the making. At the end of World War II, the United States stood virtually alone as an economic power. Accounting for 50 percent of global GDP, it held 80% of the world's hard currency reserves. Fast-forward to 2024 and the share of the US in the world economy has shrunk to 14.76% (calculated from figures provided by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund). But even this number is misleading, for fully 20% of the US economy is made of what goes under the acronym FIRE: finance, insurance and real estate. These are unproductive parasites on the productive economy. Another unproductive parasite is health care: ridiculously overpriced, it amounts to almost a quarter of all spending in the US. Neither the resources consumed by FIRE, nor by health care spending, contribute much of anything to the standing of the US within the world economy. Adjusted for these, the US share of the world economy dwindles to just over 8%. While hardly negligible, this share is nowhere near sufficient to give the US anything like a majority vote or veto power in world affairs. The tragedy of the situation is that the mindset of Americans, particularly those occupying positions of authority in Washington, has been unable to adapt to this development. Their mindset appears to be fixed for all time: they believe that they can still dictate terms to the whole world and finding it increasingly awkward to cover up for the fact that almost the whole world (with some notable exceptions) now feels free to ignore them.

Here, you can see yourself overwhelmingly non-productive nature of the US economy. 

Get it? They consider a third world economy "based on services" a sign of a "developed nation". No wonder, when one looks at such "developed nations" like UK or Germany which increasingly look like a third world. Which also explains why the US is incapable of producing a new Main Battle Tank, with the reputation (primarily through Hollywood and propaganda) being blown up to smithereens by good ol' UVZ's T-72. Remember this? 

Well, in related news... Another SSK of pr. 636 Yakutsk (for Pacific Fleet) was floated today. 

But, but, I am sure that capitalization of the St.Petersburg's Admiralty Wharfs which builds those subs is nowhere near the capitalization of any business consulting company in the US. Hey, what do those losers at UVZ have on this monster--they'll tell you how to run business, right? Right?  

No, It Didn't.

But WaPo continues to spread lame 6th grade level stratagems... pardon, I mean BS. 

The US devised a plan to commit M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine in order to provide “cover” for German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who was reluctant to send the country’s own tanks to help Kiev, the Washington Post reported on Saturday, citing more than a dozen people familiar with the matter. Relying on sources “on both sides of the Atlantic,” the report details how the White House struggled to win over Scholz who initially resisted delivering the Leopard 2 tanks to fight Russian forces in Ukraine unless the US agreed to commit the Abrams. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and the Pentagon reportedly were against sending American main battle tanks that they believed would be too difficult for Ukrainians to operate and maintain.

LOL, the US cannot devise a plan how to run anything anymore, let alone come up with at least believable excuse. There was no any "cover" for anything BUT:

1. By announcing the delivery of Abrams tanks, naturally by means of promising them in the "future" and with "sensitive" equipment removed, the US pursued the aim of deploying German Leo-2s.

2. The "promise" made on the Hodja Nasreddin's principle that either the king will die or the donkey, after Nasreddin promised to teach donkey to talk (famous tale The Guarantee). 

3. There was no "cover" also because Germany is run by cowards headed by liver sausage Scholtz, so convincing looked liked this: do or else...

4. This proverbial "else" happens anyway because Germany will send Leo-2s to 404, they all will be annihilated, together with grossly overblown German engineering reputation and that... drum roll...

5. Will allow the US to penetrate Germany's arms market with "much better" Abrams tanks, which by then have avoided being burned in industrial quantities in what remains of 404, and that will mark the end of large portion of Germany's military-industrial complex.  

So, in essence the US did provide "cover" for Germany if one views it as a cover for the coffin of a huge chunk of German industry. 

If you go 6 years back in this blog, you may recall this piece I wrote, it has a symptomatic title: Follie De Grandeur Or Why Bundeswehr Will Remain A Joke. 

But in the end, with all my deep respect to German people and for their massive accomplishments, some of which I admire myself, it has to be understood that modern economy and modern war is not what German journo hacks think they are. All those indices and wet-dreams fly out of the window once one has to face a very cruel reality in which Germany remains and will remain a large economy and military-political midget, who will never again make any trouble in Europe big time. But by far the most important thing those German media imbeciles have to understand that Russia has no plans whatsoever to "attack" any NATO country, let alone Germany whom Russia can obliterate by purely conventional means, let alone, if, God forbids, push comes to shove, by nuclear means. But the way things are happening now, Germans themselves do a hell of a job turning their country into a third world shithole and they, maybe, are already pass the point of no return. In this case they will have to try to "equal" something more of their own size.  

Remember? And it is now too late for Germans to recognize that they are nothing more than a lunch. But, they made their own choice and it is Germany's only, time to lay at the altar has come. In related news, Russia gladly receives back many Russian Germans and even German Germans--Russia loves decent and hardworking people. Remember great late Meat Loaf? 

In the land of the pigs the butcher is king:

Look at them now
What do they want?
And what do they do now?
Nothing at all!

What do they know?
What do they think?
And who do they tell?
Well, no one at all!

Lives are truly meaningless
And we are busy being blessed

With that we can take and pocket
No one needs to know
We're is the plug and they're the socket
Give us the juice and we'll go

Can't you hear the choir now?
Listen to the animals sing!
Can't you hear the slaughterhouse bells?
In the land of the pigs the butcher is king!
In the land of the pigs the butcher is king!

How do they sleep?
Their lives are so tart
Bring me the trash collectors
'Cause they're nothing but trash

What do you expect?
They've got no standards
So we lower the bar
'Cause they're waiting for us

We'll open up Pandora's Box
Pandora gave her keys and locks

They're the big dogs waiting for their mother
Come to the confessional
So I can tell you all to bugger off
There's no time like now!

Can't you hear the choir now?
Listen to the animals sing!
Can't you hear the slaughterhouse bells?
In the land of the pigs the butcher is king!

Can't you hear the choir now?
Listen to the market-place sing!
Can't you hear the slaughterhouse bells?
In the land of the pigs the butcher is king!
In the land of the pigs the butcher is king...

And we'll do it our way
It's our time to play
We know what to say
They stand in our way
Don't stand in our way
No time like today

Can't you hear the choir now?
Listen to the anthems we sing!
Can't you hear the slaughterhouse bells?
In the land of the pigs the butcher is king!

Can't you hear the choir now?
Listen to the animals sing!
Can't you hear the slaughterhouse bells?
In the land of the pigs the butcher is king!

Can't you hear the choir now?
Listen to the chosen ones sing!
Can't you hear the slaughterhouse bells?
In the land of the pigs the butcher is king!
In the land of the pigs the butcher is king!
In the land of the pigs the butcher is king!
In the land of the pigs the butcher is king!

Can't you hear the slaughterhouse bells? Prophetic, eh? It's TIME!

Across The Net.

First, serious. Brian Berletic wrote a very good piece on tanks and crews' training and explains the whole fantasy about NATO tanks at New Eastern Outlook. 

The idea that the West transferring their main battle tanks to Ukraine will be a “game changer” is rooted in the myth of Western main battle tanks being “superior” to their Russian counterparts. In turn, this myth is owed to their performance in Iraq in 1991 and again during the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 where modern US and British main battle tanks went up against Soviet-era export versions of the T-72. Not only do several experienced US military officers warn against this misconception, the performance of Western main battle tanks in recent conflicts tells a much different story.

Considering Brian's Marine background, he provides some excellent insights into the combat training requirements for tank formations' operations and explains the primarily PR nature of the whole (another phase of NATO wunerwaffen) issue. 

Meanwhile, Omsk's massive Military-Industrial sector is short 2,000 people. It is in Russian:

The gist: need for everyone, from lower laborers, to welders, tool and die makers, operators of lathes and mills, CNC Operators, Software Engineers etc. Salaries for Software Engineers--R 170,000, for CNC operators, tool and die makers, machining centers operators--starting from R 100,000, all include hefty benefits package. It is a hint on the massive expansion of weapons production and this is, mind you, when all kinds of trolls will try to make a point--NOT Moscow or region. Speaking of which. 

Russia's favorite Aussies go to Barnaul (the capital of Altai Region, essentially) and show how Russia "suffers" from sanctions. 

And if you ask me, who the toughest people in the United States are today, my answer will be--the boards of directors of Burger King and KFC. Russians love them those chicken nuggets. Just watch the video and enjoy.

OK, Babylon Bee...

... are funny. I mean it.  

U.S. Tanks In Ukraine Already Destroyed After Being Easily Recognized By Their Rainbow Camouflage "These tanks are state of the art, boasting the latest and greatest in firepower, mobility, and of course LGBTQ-affirming camouflage," said Biden's Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.

Like this:

OK, jokes aside. But many people do get anxious about the situation and the anxiety is strategic, not tactical. 80 or 81 promised tanks for 404 will change absolutely nothing but many naturally are worried about real WW III which evolves into the full blown nuclear exchange. Even Irina Alksnis, writing about the West getting caught in its own trap, notes:

На что пойдет Запад, чтобы удержать, продлить привычный статус-кво? Есть подозрение, что на все.Он выбрал инструментом своего спасения военную победу над Россией. Сейчас Запад катится по выбранной колее и все сильнее нервничает, потому что события разворачиваются не так, как он ждал, планировал и хотел. Уже в скором времени ему придется отвечать на вопрос, готов ли он к встрече лицом к лицу на украинском поле боя вермахта, то есть, простите, бундесвера, и других вооруженных сил НАТО с российской армией.

Translation: What will the West do to keep and prolong the usual status quo? There is a suspicion that everything. It chose a military victory over Russia as an instrument of its salvation. Now the West is rolling along the chosen track and is getting more and more nervous, because events are not unfolding the way they expected, planned and wanted. Soon he will have to answer the question of whether he is ready for a face-to-face meeting on the Ukrainian battlefield of the Wehrmacht, that is, excuse me, the Bundeswehr, and other NATO armed forces with the Russian army.

 

I have the answer, which I spelled out for many months now--NATO doesn't have a required force to go in and fight Russia conventionally without sustaining catastrophic losses and, thus, defeat. The challenges of even assembling such a force are so immense that the only tool the US (the rest of NATO are merely lapdogs) has left at its disposal is nuclear arsenal. But we discussed this before, but even most possessed hawks in the US have a desire to live. Is there serious "underground" in the US among military, intel and other relevant communities who keep an eye on those homicidal maniacs, just in case? I don't know, but at least some people in Pentagon have an idea, unlike ti is the case with civilian "strategists" abusing their sinecures in State Department, think-tankdom and other decision making and "influencer" orgs. 

 

As the intermediate results of SMO and 404 debacle for the combined West have shown, we can now confidently state that West and its military cannot do serious strategic and operational planning. Evidently, explaining to many graduates of the USMA at West Point a colossal difference in terms of scale, scope and severity between Patton's 3rd Army Lorraine Campaign and, say, tank battles on the Eastern Front is a tall order. But I spoke on the issue of military schools of thought and how they are formed on very many occasions. We also can confidently state that Western intelligence on a strategic level is simply inadequate, to put it mildly. After all, it is manned by people who are products of primarily humanities field of higher education in the West and we all know what an academic disaster and fraud it is today. So, no wonder we are talking about the same level of miscalculation as was done by Napoleon, Hitler and his planners and now, naturally, the same song sang into the ears of uncultured and unsophisticated US "specialists" by Kiev Regime's propagandists, such as this, from Jamestown Foundation.

Colossus With Feet of Clay

So, when looking at all this today and taking it all in, ine begins to suspect that even the brightest of the brightest from the West's "intellectual" class, including very many from the top brass have no clue about the meaning of the big words they use. Evidently, the meaning of strategy, operational art, operational planning, combined arms, echeloning, calculation of required force, political and military objectives et al, are things most in the West simply have no grasp of. It is a terrifying discovery until one gets everything into proper perspective. Recall this again:

Washington Post in a rare, albeit politically sanctioned, feat of actual journalism provided us with an astonishing insight into military, diplomatic, intelligence and economic incompetence of Washington.

The Lessons Learned interviews contradict years of public statements by presidents, generals and diplomats. The interviews make clear that officials issued rosy pronouncements they knew to be false and hid unmistakable evidence the war had become unwinnable. Several of those interviewed described explicit efforts by the U.S. government to deliberately mislead the public and a culture of willful ignorance, where bad news and critiques were unwelcome.  

We are talking about the country stuck in the middle ages and its mujaheddin armed with AK-47s, RPG-7s and IEDs. How these losers in Washington thought they can take on the nuclear, military and economic superpower defies imagination. Washington is afflicted with learning disability, forget plain simple incompetence across the board. Does this sound familiar?

Dozens of U.S. and Afghan officials told interviewers that many of the U.S. policies and initiatives — from training Afghan forces to fighting the thriving opium trade — were destined to fail because they were based on flawed assumptions about a country they didn’t understand. 

Washington doesn't have government and academic mechanisms for understanding. Those, always subpar, have been completely hollowed out in the last 20 years by shysters from Military-Industrial Complex, think-tanks and grievance industry. We see the results today. It is not that Washington operates in the Garbage In, Garbage Out (GIGO) paradigm, while the model is correct. Nope, the model itself is garbage because is built around the only thing Western elites are capable of and that is PR. You know, in layman's lingo--bullshit.

The Difference.

This video of the work of BMPT Terminator and Russian tank against VSU armor assets within dense forest is everything you need to know about irrelevance of the US Army experiences in Iraq, let alone Afghanistan to modern continental warfare. 

It also shows, effectively, different doctrinal and procurement universes Russia and the US exist in when it comes to war. Terrain alone speaks volumes about this war and how Russians approach it. No PR "shock and awe" from Pentagon's fantasies, just steady, tedious combat work. That what REAL war is. 

In related news, Germany, naturally was left out to dry and now Vicki "Fuck the EU" Nuland goes on record (in Russian) and states that Abrams tanks will not arrive to 404 in Spring, when they expect 404 to launch "counter-offensive". The whole thing is so ridiculous, including this Spring "counter-offensive", that I can only scratch my head. So, yes, Germany must die, which she will, while the US will try (they think they can) to reap the "benefits" of such situation. But then again, let's not forget Morgenthau Plan for Germany after 1945 for Germans "to tend the beet fields". Germans as a nation are finally ripe for this and this should, pretty much, bury all those myths about  German industrial and engineering prowess, which since long ago is primarily a myth. 

My wonderful publisher Clarity Press even provided a book on:

But Germans shouldn't despair, the US is doing this trick on itself pretty well too, not to mention this teeny-weeny problem of US Dollar dying out. This is combined West's (terminal) illness and no amount of tanks and other weapons will change the outcome which is pretty evident now. Now they lament:

A new documentary, “Nuclear Now,” by Oliver Stone, explores the detrimental effect that environmentalists worldwide had on nuclear power development over the past decades. Stone suggests that actions taken by the environmental movement to derail nuclear power were wrong and contributed to the acceleration of the climate crisis. Stone stated, “We had the solution [nuclear power] … and the environmental movement, to be honest, just derailed it. I think the environmental movement did a lot of good, a lot of good ... [I’m] not knocking it, but in this one major matter, it was wrong. It was wrong.”  He added, “And what they did was so destructive, because by now we would have 10,000 nuclear reactors built around the world and we would have set an example like France set for us, but no one … followed France, or Sweden for that matter.” Oliver Stone is just the latest public figure to slam environmentalists for halting the development of nuclear power, which he believes could have provided clean, safe energy to replace the fossil fuels that continue to pollute the world. 

Oliver Stone is a wonderful director, but he really needs to check his data on the reasons for climate change NOT among US academe. He knows Vladimir Putin personally and he can give him a call and Putin will put Stone in touch with real climatologists, especially specialist in Arctic and who operate Arktika satellite constellation which, let put it this way, surprised many in the West with the data which kinda contradicts their perceptions. Other than that, Stone's premise is valid and, yes, environmentalists sabotaged humanity in many respect. Recall my statement repeated for years--the nation which keeps Grune party as a serious and influential political force has psychological, if not psychiatric, issues. Germany is an Exhibit A of that. They are paying the price, and the price just went up many fold.

Trying To Get Meaning...

 ... into meaningless. My talking head about some basic tactical geometry and what all this PR action with tanks means. 

I do not even elaborate on the issue of tactical aviation which will feast on any VSU "counter-offensive" in a matter of a few days, until mop-up cavalry arrives, but it gives an idea on the issue of what I define as 100 APCs (such as Bradley) and 50 tanks such as mix of Leo-2 and Abrams, if they even get to the front-line. Never forget this thing:

Or things similar to it which can turn in one salvo, and they will not have issues with precise targeting, a few square kilometers into a glass parking lot with everything what was there, super-duper tanks included. I agree with Macgregor that now Washington wants to merely somehow prolong a bloodshed, because it is in a strategic dead-end due to incompetence and ignorance of Pentagon, "intel" community and court economists--all of them are professional failures. Meanwhile, Russian naval infantry is already fighting within Ugledar.

Voices Of Sanity?

Mike Krupa sent me link to this twitter from Bundestag. Ah, they remember (some of them) where Russian tanks (or Hussars) end up when Russia is attacked.  

Not all german politicians have forgotten history.

As I pointed out yesterday in a discussion board, Rammstein meeting turned out to be primarily a nothing-burger and, again, the already collapsing globalists' narrative will collapse much faster with the images of NATO super-pooper tanks burning in industrial quantities in 404. 

RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany (AP) — Defense leaders meeting at a U.S. air base in Germany on Friday failed to resolve divisions over providing advanced battle tanks to Ukraine after more than five hours of discussions about sending more military aid to the embattled country in its war with Russia. The defense minister of Poland, which has pledged a company of 14 Leopard tanks on condition that other countries also supply them, said 15 countries that have the German-made Leopards discussed the issue but no decisions were made. Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak called the meeting a “good discussion among allies” and said the matter would be discussed again at future talks.

As I state constantly--there are people in Pentagon left who can and do calculate the real required force to change anything in favor of 404. Without going too much into criteria of efficiency and serious datasets for computers, I can repeat what it would take. It would take all NATO countries armies, headed by the US, all their Air Forces and navies, with draft introduced in all those countries, and then about a year of uninterrupted prepositioning of the forces--good luck with that--and a preliminary agreement with Russia that all this is merely a sport competition, in order for Russia not to flatten by conventional weapons London, Brussels and Washington, to have any effect at all. Then, maybe, especially if Russia fails to mobilize around 2.5 million personnel--also good luck hoping for that to happen--there could be some talk of "changing dynamics" in 404. In layman's lingo it is called a wet fantasy. 

As James Kunstler noted today:

Ukraine did not have to become a geopolitical hot-spot. We made it a problem on-purpose. The strategy, if you can call it that, was stated explicitly by SecDef Lloyd Austin: “to weaken Russia.” That was based on the NeoCon game theory that the USA had to maintain at least the appearance of dominance over as much of the world as possible — a.k.a. hegemony — at the very moment in history that America’s economy, culture, and institutions had entered a state of collapse, visible to everyone in the world. By the way, our efforts in Ukraine against Russia have only strengthened Russia — its currency, its balance of trade, its own internal political security, and its military defenses.

Well, Ukraine HAD to become a hot-spot as not just laundromat, but as, as one Russian observer noted--the goal of prestige of a losing team which loses with a huge score. Never underestimate the ignorance and incompetence of neocons and their former Pentagon lap-dogs. They do not even know how to properly war game anything, because they live in a virtual reality and they needed badly to cover up Afghanistan humiliation and economic depression of likes we never saw before. All this neocon blob and hawks are the products of a fraudulent US Ivy League machine in "strategic studies", political "science" and foreign relations, which continues to churn out US petulant childish "elite" which played America to the precipice of a complete meltdown. And here is your Friday primer.

Couldn't Miss This One)))

VSU in desperation now covers its remaining tanks, hidden naturally in the midst of civilian apartment blocks, with... carpets. 

This video is allegedly from Kiev. I also cannot vouch for carpets, some of them could be from IKEA, others from some other stores. I am not going to delve into the stupidity of this method against the Army (Russian Army) which owns battle-space, including ISR preponderance, but the best comment was this, LOL:

Как бы мы по ошибке не начали ковровыми бомбардировками увлекаться. 

Translation: I am afraid we, by mistake, may get addicted to carpet bombing. 

 LOL)) This is a good one. Desperate times, desperate measures.

As I Always Say, European (And American) "Left" Is Not Left.

All these liberal or so called "progressive" (in reality fanatics of "progressive" totalitarianism)  Do-gooders, such as all this so called "progressive intelligentsia", most of it from ultra-left wing and which, for the most part, is badly educated in any serious field (I do not consider degrees in journalism, political science or PR an education) and who thinks that pushing its "climate agenda", gender agenda, so called "antifa" agenda--you name all those so called progressive fetishes--is a cute game, they should think twice. It goes without saying that with the exception of few fanatics, such as Green Peace raiders and terrorists, facing REAL troubles is nothing like these liberal universities campuses' "trouble" they face, especially when are protected by law enforcement agencies in their pathetic petulance. Nor being smacked into head with stone or some object, or even getting a good size hematoma from police baton really counts. No, not that.  Real problems are not in their universities and safe zones' programs of growing strong and thoughtful people. I know how the tank brigade smells, sounds and looks when it deploys from the outskirts towards crucial infrastructure inside a major metropolis. I would love to see masked "antifa" or other "climate" progressive activists, or, more appropriately, terrorists, experience when T-64 (or Abrams) runs over you or they face people who actually have orders and have capability to use automatic small and large arms to cause real harm. I know how a person who just lost three distal and intermediate phalanges and has a fibula sticking out of the calf feel.

Well, from politically correct, but, evidently, really pissed off Holland, outraged farmers decided to show how they "appreciate" all this insane climate BS spread by mentally not-well people who, actually, never worked a day in the honest hard work which benefits people. You know, like growing food. Here are Dutch farmers today (courtesy of AFP, ANP and RT):

Mind you, these are just tractors driven by pissed off Dutch farmers who are not going to take shit anymore from anyone, especially European wussy left. You can read about this at RT's site. These are just Dutch farmers with tractors. I, in this case, have a question--how many Western "eco-activists" and antifa have real experience with combat weapons, say of DShK caliber, can use RPG-7 or know how to organize platoon in offensive or defensive? I would say extremely very few among the people, especially in Europe, who push for the so called "left" agenda. The next question, of course, what are they going to do when they will begin to lose limbs, experience really nasty concussions (with PTSD and degrading of cognitive faculties to follow) not from stun grenades, but from something like RGD-5 exploding 10 meters away with no protective barrier (fragments could be very nasty).  

When shit hits the fan--and judging by inspiring Dutch farmers' demonstration, things begin to boil up--nobody will need degrees in climatology, public relations or journalism. Nobody. Ability to execute a plan which may involve extreme violence against those who are trying to destroy what's left of civilization, that will be valued, together with ammo, food, antibiotics, serious pain killers and, importantly, manpower  (like in REAL men), most of all. Dutch farmers' demonstrations are a very good and healthy sign. It is also a reaction of honest hard-working people to a cabal of spoiled and illiterate morons constituting European political and media class who push suicidal economic and cultural policies. For now it is peaceful, relatively:

Wait till people who actually contribute to society will have enough. This also goes completely for US Democratic Party which became a party of treason and sedition, for all my revulsion towards GOP. But that is why these crooks from Democratic Party in House will not start impeachment procedure (just some BS non-legal "impeachment inquiry") against Donald Trump--because, in accordance to Colonel Wilkerson, 90% of firearms in the US are on hands of Trump supporters. There is an excellent moment in a cute "urbanites-against-heartland" comedy Did You Hear About The Morgans, where main characters talk in the small Wyoming town's diner. I'll let you discover this wonderfully relevant conversation on your own. But here is an excellent preview of an unbridgeable American divide:

Looking at these protests in Hague, one can not escape this premonition that something's gotta give and is about to give. It will. In fact, we are in the process of this giving and my bets in this are on those who know how to drive tan...I mean tractors, tend to land, grow food, shoot weapons and face real difficulties. In the movie, everyone reconciles but we do not live in the Hollywood movie and it may get really ugly because the powder keg is ready to go off--the signs are all around us. The tank brigade is already at the outskirts. 

Why Mathematical Models Break Down. And Why Our Life Depends On That-3

Continuation, first two parts are HERE and HERE.

When speaking about some kind of financial "adjuster" in this particular formula we, of course, may say that there should be a way of bypassing the tedious task of finding such an adjuster and go with nominal military expenditures figures while paying attention to what is inside the bracket—that is what theoretically should account for military potential thus providing the number for this proverbial bang for a buck. But this method has its own serious drawback. No matter how we play with numbers any kind of quantifiable comparison will not convey a crucial factor of geopolitical posture and doctrines which are derived from this.

Surely, there is always a way to "compare". Consider, for example, this famous dyadic technological relation of forces. 

Don't be intimidated with those Sigma notations—they merely stand for sums of products of the year of introduction of technology (types of aircraft, tanks, ships, subs etc.) and of the number of those types. Let's give an example: we start with a very simplified example of the United States Air Force and Tank forces—we take numbers from open sources and "trim" them to avoid a tedious calculation for a huge range of years and types—remember, we do it merely for demonstration. So, we go HERE and choose the number of combat aircraft in the USAF "inventory". Let's limit ourselves to strictly fighter and attack aircraft. This will give us roughly:

235 F-15 Eagles, 220 F-15E Strike Eagles, 570 F-16 Fighting Falcons, 195 F-22 Raptors and 287 of good ol' A-10s Thunderbolts. So, now to demonstrate what it gives us in terms of first ratio inside the bracket we assume, in order to avoid this tedious calculations for each batch of the same type of aircraft, that:

1. Out of 235 F-15 Eagles 35 was manufactured in 1980, 100 was manufactured in 1990 and the last 100 was manufactured in 2005. So, that gives us first term for the type (F-15) of aircraft: 

              =69,300 + 199,000 + 200,500 = 468,800.

Now we can divide this number by total number of F-15 Eagles and we get:

                             468,800/235=1,994.9 

This number is our "weighted" (sort of) technological (which translates into combat) "value" of F-15s.

2. Now we do similar operation with F-15s Strike Eagles and for simplicity of experiment we say that 110 of them were manufactured, say, in 2000 and another 110 in 2005. Thus our Sigma for F-15Es will be: 

             110*2000 + 110*2005= 220,000+220,550=440,550

Now we divide by the number of F-15Es and get:

                         440,550/220=2002.5  

By now you should get a simple idea behind these calculations, so I will omit further calculations for each type of aircraft and will merely state the numbers based on UNIFORM or averaged year of manufacturing for the rest of aircraft. Of course, this is not the case in real life, but:

3. For F-16s we choose uniform (or average) year of manufacturing, say, 2004, this gives us 570*2004/570=2004.

4. For A-10s we get the year of 1989, so their value is 1989;

5. For F-22 Raptor we get the (average) year of manufacturing of 2005, so their value is 2005.

Now what is left for us is to add all this together to get the value of the USAF combat aircraft:   

      1,994.9 + 2002.5 + 2004 + 1989 + 2005=9,995.4

This is roughly what the value of USAF is in our example.

Absolutely the same method is used for US Army's tanks, if we to assume the number of about 6,000 of all types of M-1s being "in inventory", how many of actually combat ready tanks is out there remains really a secret—this number will be much smaller than "inventory" or "storage" but since we are at it, we may as well count ALL of them, including in storage and that number is about 6,000 American Main battle Tanks which is all iterations of M-1 Abrams. As the formula goes, once technological value of tanks is calculated, you add them to the value of aircraft and then divide this sum by 2 (or multiply by 0.5) we supposedly should get the T, that is technological value, which could be compared with the T of other nation and this is supposedly give us Dyadic Technological Advantage Delta T. For Russian AF and tank forces the information is readily available, so feel free to play with those numbers. 

 Obviously, any T in this formula is nothing more than weighted time of introduction of military technology into service and this DOES NOT represent a real technological advantage, or otherwise, since ignores completely a mode of employment of forces. Yes, the year of introduction matters but what about upgrades and modernization? As an example, an upgrade of Russia's venerable SU-27 fighter to SU-27SM produced a very capable 21^st century combat aircraft capable of turning and burning with the best of them and here we are talking about airframes some of which are 20+ years old. Same goes for upgrades of F-16s which will get AESA radar among other things, thus making this old timer not only still one of the sexiest aircraft out there but make it deadlier.

Moreover, when calculating any technological advantages one must consider not just comparisons of the likes—aircraft to aircraft, tank to tank or ship to ship. It doesn't work like this and never did. Vietnam War—a bulk of massive USAF losses (around 10,000 aircraft) were due to AAA and SAMs. Since then, USAF never encountered Air Defense of such a capability it encountered in Vietnam. One then is forced to ask an inevitable question: what could be possible, however improbable, performance of USAF against air defense assets of Russia? I do not even want to go there because this could be one of the thresholds which will force the United States to escalate to nuclear option. One, again, must consider how opposing forces deploy and fight. 

So, no matter how we play with numbers and popular formulas, so far—they do not really represent a reliable picture of capability. Indeed, what is better to have and who comes out on top in the scenario of 4 F-22s against 6 Su-35s, how about 6 F-22s against 4 Su-35s and two S-400s? Are these legitimate questions to ponder? Of course they are. In the open ocean any, even modern state-of-the-art, SSK will become inevitably much more vulnerable against modern SSN, while in its own littoral and under the cover of own ASW patrol aviation, those SSKs become deadly hunters against any nuclear powered sub. 

So, how we are to approach those comparisons? Obviously, some people go for the jugular and create all kinds of Firepower Rankings. They name whole 55 factors which influence their "calculations" and that is fine and dandy but does it reflect properly the only ability which matters in this world—to fight and WIN the war. Does it answer the question of WHAT war? It doesn't, because Russia, as an example, is not intent nor is planning for fighting the war in Europe, unless attacked first, let alone she is not intent nor is preparing for fighting a war inside the United States. The United States, however, is intent on fighting war both around and, in some mad scenarios, inside Russia. That brings us to inevitable conclusion that ANY comparison of military power outside the (respective) doctrinal frameworks is useless and is nothing more than mental acrobatics which, sadly, sometimes has a very serious and grim consequences for those who base their decisions primarily on those rankings and numerical "values".   

To Be Continued....