Plans For the Weekend ...

 ... no, really)) 

For military porn--here is SU-35 doing what SU-35 does. 

Never forget, Russian Air Force performed dismally and is grounded)) 

"Tactical" Nukes ...

... are not going to help. All of it is an admission of being a weak conventional force. Russia went through it in 1990s but she always had mechanism for recovery, the US does not. Colby got the whiff of that--too bad he will not understand, neither will Pentagon generals, what real war is. 

US Lack of "Intel" ...

 ... and their "assessments" are done only for the propaganda reasons. Same as Pentagon's. That is why the US is no good at real war. So, here we have a new pile of bovine excrement.

Recent US intelligence assessments indicate Russian President Vladimir Putin could try to test NATO’s resolve by launching a limited attack on an allied country within the next few years, according to three sources familiar with those reports. The intelligence assessments outline several possible scenarios for Russian escalation, ranging from a cyberattack to a small-scale incursion intended to challenge NATO’s unity and commitment to Article 5, which states that an attack on one member is an attack on all, without necessarily crossing the threshold for an allied response, the sources said. While how and when Putin might do so remains an open question, one of the sources said he is most likely to escalate in some way by targeting the Baltics or Poland. The Wall Street Journal first reported on the recent assessments. US and NATO officials believe Putin may choose to escalate against NATO if he is unable to secure a face-saving off-ramp to the war with Ukraine, the sources added, noting the Russian president’s window for choosing his next course of action spans between now and the next few years.

Yes, defeating NATO is now called securing "a face-saving-off-ramp". Keep in mind that not only NATO is a paper tiger, but it is a collection of military-intel mediocrities who also happened to be sore losers. The decline is so dramatic, not just in TOE terms, US Armed Forces is a force from 1990s, that is utterly obsolete, that there is no even moral metric left anymore. US Army is being turned into Israeli Army and that's about the level at which it will reside. Per "attack" on NATO "country". Well, Europe will die out on its own--let it rot. "Small-scale incursion"--if this will come, those amateurs in the US "intel" should know that it will become a very large-scale immediately and Brussels, Rammstein and Berlin will cease to exist. But you cannot explain it to them. 

Air-to-Air ...

 ... which is air defense. 

This is to remind you that drone warfare evolves and I posted numbers before--despite some dramatic videos, the actual success rate of 404 UAVs is about 4%. It declined since. Drone against drone is now a normal occurrence and Russia is the first and so far the only country which introduced a new service--Troops of the Unmanned Systems--and established military 5 year academy specifically for educating officer corps for this type of the warfare. Obviously, Russian Navy will have a say on that, because they will argue (justifiably) that surface and underwater drones are a whole other thing altogether. They are. 

Meanwhile, artillery and air force remain the most productive means of fire delivery. 

And same applies to tanks. 

If True, This Is A Decomposition ...

... of the force. I want to introduce a caveat immediately--there are occasions when officer mess hall eats differently from the rest of the crew. Special occasions, such as officers' birthdays, visits by important guests--the galley may cook a special meal--and something special officers bring onboard bought with their own money. The rest of the time--officers eat same food as their subordinates. Here is what Larry reports: 

During a conversation with the Marine’s mother, I mentioned the emails I had received from the sailor’s mom. The Marine mother, who does not know the lady who had sent me the emails, told me her son had the same experience, i.e., lousy chow and big weight loss. Pete Hegseth is calling these parents liars.

According to Ms. Mayes-Osterman: Both the Navy and Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth denied reports of food problems. “My team confirmed the logistics stats for the Lincoln & Tripoli,” Hegseth said in a post on X. “Both have 30+ days of Class I supplies (food) on board. NavCent monitors this everyday, for every ship. Our sailors deserve — and receive — the best.” 

The only liar is Hegseth. He reportedly visited one of the ships and had a splendid meal in the Officer’s Mess. He did not eat in the dining facility for the enlisted personnel. That is a failure of leadership. My dogs eat better than these sailors and Marines. This is not just a problem on the USS Tripoli and USS Boxer. Similar complaints came from sailors posted to the USS Abraham Lincoln. The officers on board these ships have a duty and obligation to ensure their troops are properly fed. In theory, officers are supposed to eat last. But that is not the reality on board the ships conducting war missions off the coast of Iran.

Evidently Pete Hegseth thinks that his tour in Afghanistan and career of media personality make him a very special guest who can bypass galley realities of the ships on station and accept his great meal as a confirmation of everything being rosy with feeding the personnel. Of course, any deployment does have an effect on the weight, but if it is the "big weight loss"--this is more than just bad food or effects of protracted deployment, this means NOT ENOUGH food. 

Evidently the problem with feeding the personnel on these deployed ships persists. 

Well, deodorant should be the least of the concerns there. Food, water for showers and laundry, and functioning toilets should be. That's fundamental for deployment and the morale. What we observe, however, is a sheer incompetence on part of Trump Administration (no surprise here) and US military. This is a third world. This is also inadmissible. It has two layers to it, the first one, of course, is that the US shouldn't be there in the first place, the second--who allows these conditions to persist? As Stalin used to say--each problem always has a name. 

Larry Wilkerson Talked ...

 ... to the right person in Pentagon. 

He talks about this visit in June 2024. 

Obviously USNI headline is somewhat misleading.  

Russian Nuclear Sub, Frigate with Long Range Land Attack Missiles Operating Off East Coast

These are not just land attack missiles which, of course, matter. These are 3M22 Zircons which are carried by Gorshkov-class frigates which matter the most. Of course, they are capable of land attack too. Here is a reminder what Zircon is.

But these are anti-shipping missiles which can penetrate any even super-pooper AD, which the US Navy doesn't have. Actually Zircon's is up to M=10 and the range of 1,500 km. At least somebody understands in Pentagon. 

Nima and Me ...

 ... live in 1 hr. 20 minutes.