Monday, January 9, 2023

Now It Is Turning Into...

 ... a soap opera. In fact, as usual, it begins to look increasingly risible. 

Ah, yes. Anything but modern Abrams tanks. 

Allow me to remind you that Stryker was conceived in early 2000s as a "transformational" vehicle primarily designed to fight COIN in countries like Iraq and Afghanistan and, at that time, had this innovation, now pretty standard across medium to heavy armor both in the US and Russia, of netcentricity and being "flexible". How these vehicles with whatever modules ranging from TOW ATGMs, to mortars to even 105-mm cannon can change anything on the battlefield in 404 is a mystery to me, especially since, as Politico notes itself:

The Strykers may be part of the next tranche of military aid, according to a Defense Department official, who like others asked for anonymity to discuss internal deliberations ahead of an announcement. The administration could announce the package, with or without Strykers, late next week around the time of the next Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting in Germany. The people stressed that no final decision has been made, and the administration could decide to send the Strykers in a future package instead.

So, generally, it is all, again, about PR and a desperate desire to be seen as "doing something" under the conditions of obvious catastrophe for VSU in Soledar and Bakhmut, which serve as a slaughterhouse for remaining reserves of Kiev regime. Same as Bradley IFVs, Strykers and their foreign iterations such as similar Canadian vehicles are not survivable on the modern combined arms battlefield against the enemy with a very strong armor component, artillery and combat aviation, not to mention having an extremely good situational and tactical awareness. But... but, neocon cabal in Biden's Admin is afraid to look in the face of operational and strategic reality and will continue to provide Russia with NATO hardware fodder and a good practical training for Russian Army to handle NATO's equipment. I omit here, of course, the issue of enormous reputational losses for the US military-industrial complex. 

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