... find their asses with both hands in a brightly lit room. Just wanted to leave it here to mark my long-standing point of why GIGO and lack of any serious education produce this type of people.
Today it is all about appearances and no substance whatsoever. What passes for "tech" in the West is nothing more than primarily (not all of it) a collection of code-writers who do not understand that the strike in some mine in South America or Africa can abruptly stop their gravy train of BS, while 3M14M or newest X-101 can reach them anywhere. Yet, here we are, some BSer with zero serious experiences in anything hypnotizing a bunch of morons with degrees from degree mills in Ivy League. Can this guy and his "firm" develop a good jet engine or rolling stock? I thought so.
Translation:It would be foolish to hope that, having played out and abandoned Ukraine, the American elites will stop putting pressure on Russia.Objectively speaking, this pressure is their only hope to delay their end a little longer.The next hot spot where the Americans plan to climb in with their feet is located in a very cold region - this is the Arctic, our Subpolar region.New icebreakers are already being built, NATO exercises are regularly held in the subpolar zone, and American aircraft carriers ply the northern seas.Norway, Sweden and Finland - the northern flank of the alliance - are being heavily trained to confront Russia."NATO should increase its presence in the Arctic," says Jens Stoltenberg.The mouthpiece of the American military The Washington Post recently reported that the Arctic is becoming a zone of the Great Game - that is, the strategic confrontation between the Anglo-Saxons and Russia.
The piece is good in general since gives the background of the issue of the Arctic Sea Route and a sort of panic which sets among arctic nations of Europe, to the point that they are trying to convince Washington (good luck with that, LOL) that things are not as bad:
Obviously, it is stable since Russia has no interest in dealing with Scandinavia, as Finns are now learning the hard way. But, Russia sure as hell readies to defend her Arctic possessions. For that she already has the tools, while NATO doesn't. The issue is not only ice-breakers, where Russia is in the league of her own, especially in nuclear ice-breakers.
Here is Ivan Papanin of pr. 23550 fitting out:
Here is Purga for Russian Coast Guard getting ready:
And this is how they will look like upon completion with those lovely 3M54 and 3M14 Kalibrs installed on them.
These are respectable ice-breakers of almost 7,000 ton standard displacement which make similar Norwegian patrol ice-breaker Svalbard with its 57-mm gun look like a leisure vessel.
And all this only as far as combat ice-breakers go, the rest: surface and submarine forces of the Northern Fleet and massive combat air, air defense and coastal component--it is not even fair to compare, including US and Canada's capabilities combined. Recall, that Russian Northern Fleet is not JUST the fleet anymore, it is now a whole military district onto itself. Once one considers the fact of the US Navy's SSNs having some serious issues with readiness, while Russia builds up her submarine component in Arctic, it becomes clear that any attempts to challenge Russia in Arctic are bound to run into the problems from the get go. There is simply not enough tools for that. Simple as that. After all, one doesn't go hunting for bear with a kitchen knife.
By now not only this qualifier sounds funny but it becomes down right buffoonish since the inevitable question arises--and what CAN NATO possibly "train" in a few weeks those VSU "elite" units when the WHOLE process of combat training and field manuals of NATO is utterly incompatible with the modern warfare of scale. "Training" just the use of battlefield weapons and some basic unit maneuvering with comms, which are being suppressed brutally by Russian Army at the front-line, using finicky and grossly over-hyped NATO weapons? That's not real "combat training".
Fact is, teaching personnel a physical exertion, while important, in and of itself doesn't even begin to cover a set of requirements for modern warrior who operates under the fire intensity and ISR constrains (for VSU), such as Starlink comms now being suppressed all over the place (in Russian), while maneuvering is de facto impossible without being detected, tracked and annihilated by long-range fires. None of that is known to NATO trainers and that is why even VSU servicemen laugh at this "training". And then, of course, comes this issue of officer cadre. Interestingly, Macgergor speaks about it in his latest video I posted, where he gives (grim) assessment of US service academies. Risking to call the wrath of some people upon me, I dare to state that NATO officer corps education and training is not even in the same league with that of Russia.
Russia's military education never abolished a classic Soviet officer training which amounted to full 6 academic years (5 calendar years) and produced graduate degree military engineers with the undergraduate (Bachelor of Science) equivalent in military science. Purely combined arms (общевойсковые) academies go for 4 calendar (5 academic) years and in all of them, across the board, curriculum is simply grueling--both physically and, especially so, academically. Add here inherently much higher STEM academic level of Russia's public schools where the future military cadets originate and you will understand the abyss which separates command corps' of NATO and Russia. Today it is being paraded in a front of the whole world.
Russia celebrated her Navy Day yesterday and, as is traditional, Putin underscored the commitment for the expansion of Russian Navy. Interestingly, while everyone knows about Russian Navy's big items such as Belgorod or six pr. 22350 (M) FFGs being built, the fact that the announcer of the parade convincingly stated that all "mosquitos" will be armed with 3M22 Zircon, thus dispelling any doubts about "lightening" of Zircon for smaller ships, came as a surprise of sorts.
It goes like this: if you have 3C14 UKSK VLS and Centavr NM satellite comms--you are getting Zircon whether you want it or not)). We should now expect submarine (submerged) launch of 3M22 from Severodvinsk or Kazan very soon, after which Zircon will be procured to subs. Interesting...
... which are crucial for understanding the scale of catastrophe not just for 404 but for NATO. Macgregor, being a serious source on numbers, since he has access to Pentagon's assessments, makes a short quip: who knows how many wounded and VSU having great difficulties evacuating their wounded.
And this is the key--those 300s are turning into 200s in massive numbers which add to the baseline of around 350,000 VSU KIAs dramatically and while it is clear that the whole number of casualties of VSU is reaching or is pass one million, we WILL BE astonished by the number of KIAs when everything is said and done.
Mark Milley, leaving his post (and because of that) suddenly recognizes the fact of which I wrote for years--JCS is not really up for such a complex task as planning and fighting a REAL war. Milley went for a jugular and went for offering de facto... Russian model of "harmonization of services" and that created an outcry from grifters from Pentagon.
Oh boy, Seth Cropsey who "served" as a middle level bureaucrat in several administrations as a conduit for incompetent neocon "way of war" is really hurt by the de facto admission by Milley that this whole "Air Land Battle" and JCS structure is designed to "fight" 5 year old kids in the sand box. SMO exposed completely this "flowering operational theory" (LOL, I am still laughing))) as nothing more than PR BS not designed for fighting any serious enemy. Especially the one which actually has world-class air defense, air force and a dramatic advantage in high precision and stand-off weaponry supported by advanced ISR.
But the fact that Milley essentially calls for the US equivalent of General Staff butt-hurt Cropsey really badly. To the point of this:
Centralizing force design through a “future jointness czar” is not
strategic wisdom — it is hubristic, bureaucratic policymaking. The
danger is that the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and the next
Secretary of Defense, are too blinded by their conviction in the arc of
technological change that they commit the U.S. military to the wrong
transformational program. Jointness is useful in creating a military force whose cooperation in
training multiplies effectiveness in combat. But as the author of force
design and doctrine for all the military services, it would be a
disaster to trade experience for “harmonization.”
I have news for Cropsey--America's war "experience" within existing structure and what passes in the US for "doctrine" and "joint vision" is one of a sequence of losses of wars and I do not even talk about US Armed Forces losing not just wars but the technological arms race--the fact Cropsey cannot wrap his brain around. But Cropsey shouldn't worry--IF this transition even takes place it will not succeed, because the US has no experience of the warfare of such scope and scale as SMO, not to speak of hundreds of years of the evolution of the General Staff which Russia has. Pentagon exists as a branch of the US military-industrial-media complex and is not designed to fight real wars.
But then again, I am on record: strategic planning is what Russian General Staff does and it has an incredibly good intel collection and strategic analytical structures (GRU) of its own, not to mention dedicated own Academy of the General Staff, which allow it to occupy the role of a true "harmonizer" for all services of Russian Armed Forces and having a very serious influence on the decision making process of Russian political top. It is a very different organism which grew out of a very different historic, cultural and military experience than that of the US. But I applaud Cropsey's audacity when calling a dismal record of US lost wars a "flowering of operational theory", LOL. But then again, we may admit that when looked at as a theory of how NOT TO FIGHT real war, we may allow for this term of "flowering".
... I was driving today (after changing tires) in my wife's SUV and AC/DC came up on one of the stations with classic For Those About To Rock. And I was thinking to myself how this influenced things in terms of getting liberated in emotional sense. Boy, who would ever thought that these girls will persevere...
What's the deal with these Japanese girls with classic musical education going into heavy metal of fusion? They just excel at both ...
... M1 Abrams "being captured". It fears it being paraded the same way German Leopards have been paraded--destroyed.
Russians promised to display defeated NATO weapons in fronts of embassies of NATO countries in Moscow. So, I am sure seeing burned Abrams in a front of US Embassy in Moscow would be a humiliation the US doesn't want to face. But, at this stage one has to ask the question--where did the US get the idea of being a premier armor warfare power? From defeating inept Middle Eastern armies? I know there are many fans of IDF armor warfare and technological masturbation to Merkavas which lasted exactly till they faced off with Kornets at Litany.
Plus, there is this teeny-weeny issue which is not counted--there is also a huge bounty for NATO weapons and it is paid by a number of Russian very rich patriots, such as Grigory Leps and they did pay out already. I don't know what current rate is, but I am sure there will be many takers. Especially considering Russian history with this type of the warfare.
At this time I am not even sure that those people in the US heard of that:
Do they even have a grasp of the scale? I doubt it. In related news, Challengers are avoiding appearing on the front-lines of SMO. Evidently they have "issues", wink, wink;))
Just a refresher how it usually looks like:
I thought I will just put it here for people to keep in mind that no US servicemen knows what is it to defend his family and home. Russians did it for 1, 200 years. In the end, Russians created this monster:
Which would simply blow up any Wehrmacht tank to smithereens with its 122-mm gun. Today, choices are so much wider across all domains. It is like a candy store for those hellbent on destruction. So, I just wanted to remind you about this.
... inability to plan operationally and strategically on the part of Washington in general and Pentagon in particular, I do not mean it as a figure of speech. I really mean it in terms of actual planning. Six years ago I called the lack of this ability "the myopia".
The definition must be changed. With myopia one at least can see near oneself. This IS NOT the case with Washington--it cannot see what is immediately in a front of its eyes and the issue is not myopia but what some people, yours truly included, begin to increasingly assertively state--there is NO strategic planning in Washington at all. It is not just the inability to strategically plan, it is a complete absence of such in principle.
It is a systemic problem and it cannot be addressed without rebuilding the system from the ground up and the good first step would be throwing out all those Ph.Ds in "strategy" who infest US "academe" and think-tankdom while having no fucking clue about what they preach. Studying military and political history in and of itself does not represent "strategic studies" due to inherently complex nature of modern warfare and a required accuracy in description of the object of study, such as a country, in our particular case--Russia. The US in general, and combined West in particular, DO NOT have the tool kit to handle all that, we can say it now with confidence. So, the issue is multifaceted and pseudo-academe and "experts" who dominate decision-making chain in the US are incapable of correcting the course. It is too late now anyway.
And that is my point, the US is so deep in lies, about itself, about the world, about history, about military et al, that I don't see how can one reasonably debate those people, those masters of discourse who pretend that learning several stratagems and abstract "strategic" constructs makes them masters of "strategy". As was stated numerous times--enough to look at the version of WW II by those "masters" to understand how hollow and ignorant they are. E.g. Mearsheimer's quip about liberal democracy "defeating Nazism" while quoting Fukuyama. So, I can sit here and produce one example after another for days, but that's not the point. The point is--US "strategic planning" is non-existent category and anyone who pushes the idea that it exists today should be disqualified as a scholar, since doctrine and strategy-mongering is not strategic planning, especially when done by people who are lost in the complexities of the modern world.
The existence of people here and there who do understand this fallacy does not change the issue that the problem is systemic and cannot be addressed from within--the critical mass of thinkers with integrity and intellectual tool kit are simply not there. And even the US military is losing remaining ability extremely fast--not surprising considering a catastrophe in military education. And here we are today:
How do you even deal with that? I don't know yet. But I was warning about this for many years. Once this whole myth is exposed, as it was in 404, where do you go from here, when the whole house of cards is built on lies. How can you talk to any Ph.D in "international affairs" or in "strategy" when most of them do not know basic facts of history and have zero military professional apparatus to pass judgement on the foundation of geopolitics which is not geography but balance of power? I don't know, I just know that they cannot hide anymore the scale of a catastrophe. Ideas?
I didn't watch it in full length yet, but I know it is going to be a wowser. Here is the "media strategist" with degree from Vassar College in... dance and history of arts and a full-time Kiev regime stooge "debating" professional CIA analyst and anti-terrorism professional of very many years. Couldn't get Rumble video here, so here is the link to Larry's blog:
Well, it is not Zelensky who "has begun to lose credibility", it is NATO which already lost it, and "donor fatigue" is not "fatigue" but the lossof the war. The reality simply sets in. NATO, a euphemism for Pentagon, "planning" is a joke.And they are envious, painfully envious and jealous.
... about spiritual things. And I am an atheistic agnostic. Or, putting it in the words of some people (Lukashenko, as much as I abhor him), Russian Orthodox atheist. Yes, this is possible. And Alexey Rybnikov celebrated his birthday just recently. And here is the deal. Many people ask who is the head of the Church? In Catholicism it is Pope, but Russian Orthodox Church has only one head and, you guessed it, he is Jesus Christ. The clergy, including Patriarch, is below. Funny, how USSR allowed a devout Christian Alexey Rybnikov to produce the first true Soviet/Russian rock-opera The Star and the Death of Joaquin Murieta in 1978 (the movie came four years later) and then, the rock-opera which took USSR by storm. I omit here Rybnikov's genius soundtracks to a whole lot of Soviet movies. I am talking about Juno and Avos.
Here is a coda of this magnificent production of the opera, plus, of course, WiKi provides a misleading info--the original was this in 1980 and Lenkom had nothing to do with it. It gives the insight into modern Russian view of not just the Orthodox Christianity but into the view of "Soviets" into the spiritual world which was and remains very complex and is all about love. Add here immense production values and you get a spread at the Palace Square in St.Petersburg which provides the background to one of the incredible musical and religious experiences.
You can see the whole thing here:
The point being, there are things which stand the test of time. Rybnikov and his music did. Remarkably, it is all independent from the West in a sense that nobody cares about opinions of people who listen and watch modern Western pop--a euphemism for degeneracy. Just wanted to point this out. Here is Rybnikov's intro from 1980...
The only reason I still keep my synth around me while having no musical ability whatsoever and being drowned in geopolitics and military, is because I need to learn how to play this piece...
I believe I already said about it before, because it is... spiritual, spiritual and truly beautiful being equivalent.
And yes, by now reading this "China's supplies to Russia" or "Iranian Shaheed Drones" is bordering on preposterous. As I am on record for years--Western "journalism" and "political science" schools produce primarily imbeciles in the last 20 years.
It doesn't mean that such ratios are everywhere, NO! But what Marat indicated yesterday (in Russian) just in the sector of one of his native "Slavyanka" Brigade's battalions a few days ago the assault by one of the VSU company-strength (I surmised) group was stopped with such ratio: VSU--30+ KIAs (this is how many corpses guys have been able to count), "Slavyanka"--3 wounded. Make you own conclusions. It seems like the slow collapse of the front is in progress, but Russia has no reasons to be in a hurry.
I do not say this under the influence of schadenfreude, I just say this because it is a cold hard fact and it will get worse, much-much worse. WSJ noticed.
It is inevitable in the times of the systemic collapse of the order under the weight of objective laws of economics and geopolitics. Remarkably, the creeps in WSJ, while making correct observation on Europe immediately fall into the cesspool of own economic BS attempt pathetically to draw a rosier picture of the US--a typical behavior of losers.
One has to ask the question--in what parallel universe these ignorant propagandists from WSJ reside, when American economic reality is anything but an unfolding calamity. But then again, the school of the economic legerdemain in the US--a euphemism for cooking books--is renown around the world as one of those affairs of a porn starlet selling herself as virtuous wife. Some still buy this BS, but reality, of course, is such that without consuming Europe, an ongoing process as I type this, the American decline would have been even steeper.
WSJ piece is reminiscent of the reaction of a convict on the death row consoling himself that he has a few more days to live left after the execution of the criminal from the neighboring cell. That in itself is an indicator of a nervous reaction. Especially claims that the US economy now "is nearly twice the size" of Eurozone's. Well, Wall Street "mathematics" certainly allows for this idiotic statement, but then again--in accordance to US media Ukraine is also winning. As Larry astutely noted at Judge's podcast:
Schizophrenia afflicted Western societies and US media, such as this low life tabloid WSJ. US media played a crucial role in driving the US into the ground while helping to destroy Europe and setting it on the course to what would be called a "Second World"--much lower wages, much lower consumption and continuous industrial decline until it... implodes. The same scenario is awaiting the US but with its own quirks and being delayed somewhat.
In SMO news, Russian Army took Sergeevka and continued to do what it does best--annihilating remaining VSU reserves. I'll be talking about delusion of Admiral Stavridis in my video later today. Evidently Stavridis missed bigly on the capabilities of Russia's Black Sea Fleet. Somehow, I am not surprised--American top brass, most of it anyway, paraded itself as militarily ignorant people who reside in the alternative warfare universe. I am not surprised.
I am on record and it is public--US-made (or procured) Air Defense IS NOT designed for modern battlefield. I do not say it lightly, but the use of the AIM-120 AMRAAM, which is a dedicated air-to-air missile, which, surprise-surprise, when launched from the aircraft already has Vo or initial speed that of aircraft itself and has much more energy than when launched from motionless platform is not a good idea, even with booster. And then, of course, there is an issue of modern EW environment. Here is what happens with NASAMS and its AMRAAMs when encountering highly tactically aware opponent with superb ISR.
Military porn, anyone? I warned about it. This is not to mention those nasty Rooskies playing games by electronically faking such things as takeoffs of Russia's strategic bombers, or swarms of cruise missiles and shit like this. You can bet you ass on this shit not being taught in Kennedy School of Government or in Georgetown University School of Foreign Service. They will not understand it anyway. Especially geopolitical ramifications of the NATO technological "superiority" being demolished in the most explicit, rated 21+ audience only, manner for everyone to see. And yes, NASAMS IS the system guarding the White House. Evidently it has issues intercepting a slow drone, forget about 3M14, let alone M=2.6 Oniks, let alone... ahem... Kinzhal.
No, I mean it! Baghdad Bob is having the time of his life, watching this.
The title of this surreal video is: Blinken says Ukraine has reclaimed about half of land Russia seized. Get it? Well, here is yesterday's map by Russian MoD. These guys are good at strategy, operations and situational awareness, they are also extremely good at math and geography--all those things which are not taught in all those pseudo-academic degree mills in Ivy League humanities where people like Blinken go to get their liberal arts (a euphemism for absence of serious skills) degrees.
There are two shysters in this video--a genuine ignoramus and uncultured hack Zakaria and, of course, Tony Blinken. Not only they have zero math skills, both of these "professionals" sit and humiliate their (their?) country in a front of the whole world, because unlike Blinken everyone knows the real deal and the map reflects it. But I repeat, the only thing these sociopaths know is how to lie and PR, for the sake of own promotion within deep recesses of bureaucracy which can't do anything to stop, in fact it accelerates it, a demise of what remains of America's nation.
For those who need Metcalfe's Law refreshing and basic calculations of value of network, here is a refresher from The Real Revolution in Military Affairs:
I also re-post here the slide from video:
So, the value of network depicted in the left lower corner of slide, when counted as "everyone communicates to everyone", that is 7 aircraft, will be: 7^2+7 = 49 + 7 = 56. How it is distributed in real life, of course, is a completely other matter, as well as the issue of secure data links, processing and developing an attack solution. But it gives some idea.
As was pointed out often--all this Wagner thing is largely a hype. Now that the truth begins to hit lay public's minds, it is time to talk openly. Larry nails it:
Horrendous numbers of Wagner's losses in Bakhmut testify to a very low level of training (only 21 days instead of months, where the money provided for the normal training went make you own conclusion) and a complete lack of self-awareness. And look, Wagner is gone and Russian Army grinds VSU forces around it into dust and extremely efficiently. So much for Prigozhin's BS that if Wagner leaves the front collapses. They left and things only improved. But it is now FSB and Investigative Committee's task, together with Main Military Prosecutor Office, to root out those who aided Wagner which amounted to nothing more than a well armed organized criminal group.
... especially when Poland is reminded of a cold hard fact of Stalin giving Poland German territories after WW II. Official Warsaw went ballistic. Plus this:
I never hid my opinion about Mr. Girkin (aka Strelkov) and I stressed not for once that not only he IS NOT a military leader--he never was one, having NO military education and having his failures in Donbass hushed over from military amateurs by his self-promotion and friendly media--but that from the start of SMO his "opinions" and "forecasts" on issues of modern geopolitics, combined arms operations, Russian Armed Forces, NATO et al were nothing more than a delirium of a bitter loser who black-mouthed Russia and "Putin's Regime" at every opportunity. He, certainly, has been able to create a sort of cult among a group of ignoramuses and for the last several years was pursuing his political ambitions, together with some other remnants of Russian Spring from Donbass, such as Pavel Gubarev, who saw a political process of integration of LDNR into Russia as a good opportunity to both enrich themselves and exercise their egos larger than cathedral.
Well, as was pointed out for years by many in Russia: not only Girkin was a guy culpable in surrendering Slavyansk to VSU (only interference from Alexander Borodai saved Girkin from being executed in Donetsk) but his open support for 404 was becoming clearer and clearer with each passing day, including some very strong signs that he might have been the SBU asset from the get go. Well, Girkin's political career, as pathetic as it is, is over now:
For Western audiences subsisting on propaganda and sensationalism it is often next to impossible to have proper perspective on such personalities or events, e.g. Prigozhin and Wagner and their blown out of proportion military "capability" while in reality sustaining catastrophic casualties. So, in the Manichean world of black and white images, the fact that Girkin is an enemy not just of Putin but of the majority of Russians and that his "military accomplishments" are rather minuscule, or that Prigozhin now is under a scrutiny by some serious people in MoD and FSB and he WILL answer for Russian heli and IL-22 pilots shot down by his "troops", is very difficult to process. Understandably so.
But here it is, long anticipated reaction of the nation which is at war to someone who always was an enemy. Mr. Gubarev also was detained today, especially after it was disclosed that very large sums of money have been "appropriated" by this once "hero" of Russian Spring. Nobody is above the law, especially during SMO. It is also a good signal to all those "voenkors" ranging from lowlifes such as Sladkov or Pegov, to "analysts" of Rybar or Podolyaka "caliber" who have been spreading open disinformation for many months now, that times are changing. And that is about time. Needless to say that practically all of them are people who merely used their geographic location close to SMO battle-lines or large audiences primarily for promotion of their personal financial interests and egos, and discrediting by default the work of real military reporters.
I am on record, TG channels on SMO are primarily trash, with exception of official MoD or FM channels and channels of such people like Marat Khairullin--the rest is sheer trash. That is why, as an example, I had to disagree with Scott with regards to Alexander Kotz who left his mark through supporting Maidan and providing a constant stream of BS, despite being identified as Kremlin propagandist. So, today's putting Girkin and Gubarev behind bars where both definitely belong is a good sign of Moscow's intentions to finally clean the cesspool of people who either consciously or due to sheer stupidity have been working for the enemy.
Now, for those who still continue to misread numbers of VSU losses and use a blanket term of "casualties" standing for the sum of all KIAs, MIAs, WIAs, instead of the specific category KIA--Killed in Action. Many people continue to ignore the crucial distinction in Russian MoD reports. Like this:
MoD uses the term "уничтожено" (annihilated), in terms of personnel it means KILLED. Thus the numbers presented are those of KIAs not of "casualties". Realistically MoD can only generally estimate number of wounded, but it has better documentation of KIAs, especially with modern means of objective control. Even Putin today spoke about tens of thousands KILLED (погибших) during VSU "counteroffensive" (in Russian). So, I repeat--MoD gives KIAs of VSU. That is why it is absolutely justifiable to talk now about roughly 350,000 KIAs and around 700,000 to 900,000 wounded in VSU, which amounts to 1,000,000 + casualties. The Ukie counteroffensive, thus, resulted in roughly 41,000 KIAs and about 100,000 wounded from June 4 through today, July 21. In all, roughly 140,000+ casualties. In reality, the number will be much higher and they begin to feel the pinch in Washington.
Do not forget, that once the REAL International War Crimes Tribunal for Ukraine starts there will be many NYT, WaPo, The Telegraph, MSNBC and CNN et al mediawhores who will be charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity as propaganda enablers for deaths and destruction and no amount of maneuvering and manipulation will help them, as it didn't help Girkin and Gubarev.
... about Shaman and I wanted to reserve it for tomorrow, but since Larch brought this guy up. Here is his latest, released 13 hours ago and a few minutes ago there were 880,000 views, now they "counted down" those to 813,000. Doesn't matter. The TSIPSO went immediately to work smearing this with their excrement comments prepared in London and D.C. But here he is with his latest My Battle (Moi Boi) during his tour of Novorossiya and singing it for fighters of SMO. As you have concluded, for free...
Although Popov's "story" is rather murky, it is ever big mouth Gurulev who should be looked at as a conduit for this "story", but Larry makes great point:
While Prigozhin's mutiny was a real deal, albeit barely registering on Russia's constant 24/7 planning, one has to keep in mind that this unhealthy fixation of Western media on this shyster is to a large degree driven by Western media lack of any understanding of modern Russia and modern War. Wagner has been disarmed with most of heavy weaponry and ammo, a lot of it never used in battle, returned to MoD and Western pundits including many of those from Pentagon still don't get it--Wagner is merely a storm troops group which is absolutely not designed for fighting combined arms operations. Reality of Bakhmut is a dramatic demonstration of that, with Wagner's casualties being extremely high, and if not for interference from Russian Army who covered Wagner's flanks and provided the rest of support ranging from ISR, CAS and, not least, including attaching a number of VDV units to it, the result of Wagner's Bakhmut adventure could have been a disaster, both for them and the front.
Western pundits' masturbation to Prigozhin and Wagner also exposes their (and their owners) visceral hatred for Russians in general and Putin in particular. So much so that they are ready to believe any kind of BS grasping for the last straw in what has already shaped itself as a strategic defeat for NATO. I read today some excerpts (I do not have time to consume that much BS) from British SIS (MI6) big honcho Richard Moore. Good God, with bosses like this who needs the enemies such as SVR or FSB, they are delusional (and desperate--that's classic doublethink and it is double plus good) there to such a degree, not to mention being incompetent in forecasting, that the only thing which is left is to go and reread great English literature of the Victorian times when intellect and wit have been applauded around the world, and one couldn't remove oneself from consuming adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. Well, they said the sun will never set on the Empire. Look at them now. Read Larry's excellent piece on his blog.
Once the grain deal, and weapons deliveries and diversionary and terrorist acts which have been conducted under its cover by NATO and 404, has been allowed "to expire" by Russia, inevitable decision has been made by Moscow. Russian MoD stated today:
Translation:In connection with the termination of the Black Sea Initiative and the curtailment of the maritime humanitarian corridor, from 00:00 Moscow time on July 20, 2023, all ships proceeding to Ukrainian ports in the Black Sea waters will be considered as potential carriers of military cargo.▫️ Accordingly, the flag countries of such ships will be considered involved in the Ukrainian conflict on the side of the Kyiv regime.▫️ In addition, a number of sea areas in the northwestern and southeastern parts of the international waters of the Black Sea have been declared temporarily dangerous for navigation.Appropriate informational warnings about the withdrawal of safety guarantees to seafarers were issued in accordance with the established procedure.
So, for anyone, including NATO fleets, who wants to get acquainted with Mr. P-800 Onyx or Mr. 3M54 Kalibr, or to experience receiving a torpedo under the waterline, they are free to try with continuation of the "grain deal" perfidy. I doubt there will be many candidates.
Meanwhile, RSA and her President Ramaposa begged Putin not to come to Johannesburg for BRICS meeting, due to RSA recognition of the kangaroo ICC. Putin agreed and will participate through video link (in Russian). Good, I personally don't like Putin traveling around the world during SMO. Plus, RSA now has tasted her "independence", which brings its participation in BRICS into question due to her very limited sovereignty. It is expected and I am on record ad nauseam--real BRICS in reality is RIC and anyone with a half-brain understands that.
The text: US military drone after flying over Russian destroyer, returned to base with installed Yandex Browser, Mail.ru agent, State Services app, subscription to Besogon.TV and uninstallable browser Amigo. During viewing files which had been saved to this drones memory somebody screamed 1 x bet every four minutes.
Drone's text: just kill me.
That's the power of Russian EW--they install so much shit on your hard-drives (or SSD) that your equipment breaks down. There, I disclosed Russia's secret deadly technology;))
Pardon me, I mean today's Pentagon's press-conference. I have no problem with Lord Austin parading himself as a hack, who he is, but at least we all know his serious attachment to Raytheon and those perks one gets in connection to this corporation. So, saying stupid things is Austin's task, despite the fig leaf of officialdom afforded to him by his SecDef position. But Milley, My God! Dude, any self-respect left in you?
So I'm confident that they can do this, and especially if they
execute the tactics, techniques and procedures that they've been taught,
which they are doing, and execute these operations at night, which
would deny the Russians the ability to use any of their airpower anyway.
So the real problem is the minefields. It's not right now the airpower. Now, having said that, just do a quick math drill here. Ten F-16s are
$2 billion, so the Russians have hundreds of fourth- and
fifth-generation airframes. So if they're going to try to match the
Russians one for one, or even, you know, two-to-one, you're talking
about a large number of aircraft. That's going to take years to train
the pilots, years to do the maintenance and sustainment, years to
generate that degree of financial support to do that. You're talking way
more billions of dollars than has already been generated. So the key thing is to focus on air defense, focus on the
blocking-and-tackling sort of offensive combined arms maneuver, which is
artillery, as both long-range and short-range artillery, and then get
in your engineers and your mine-breaching equipment. That's the kind of
stuff they need. That's what they want. That's what they're asking for.
When I talk to Zaluzhny, that's what he's asking for, so --
Comrade General Milley, I have news for you--US Army (in general, NATO) "training" is laughed at by... Ukies themselves. The reason being that the US Armed Forces have exactly zero people who know how to fight modern multi-domain war of such scale. Zilch, nada and, in related news, Russians have very good Night Vision/FLIR systems on all of their attack helis and all fighter and CAS aircraft. But the passage about "matching" and Air Defense is stupefying. The US (and NATO) do not have AD survivable on the modern battlefield. This has been demonstrated to a dramatic effect. And this applies to each and every weapon system supplied by NATO to 404. So, I have a "secret" for Milley--US fighting doctrine is a joke built around mythology of the "dominant" air-power, which didn't encounter REAL air defenses and air forces like... NEVER. Today's statements by Jake Sullivan are really telling. Boy, how I wish to quote Tolstoy again, but I will not.
Just to demonstrate. Here is Ka-52 cockpit with both pilot and weps having very good night vision/FLIR cameras and MFDs.
Here is SU-35 cockpit with very good night capability.
Same goes for SU-30SMs, and I am not even talking here about full netcentricity in the A-50, Su-57, Su-35, Su-34 and Su-30SM2 combat circuit allowing both sensor/data fusion and constant exchange of data/targeting between each-other. This is "slightly" more complex than just having a number of aircraft as opposed to integrated combat force whose combat score, including both air (especially BVR) and ground kills makes many people in USAF very uncomfortable. Hey, at least Milley learned that real AD matters. Didn't Jake Sullivan point this out today?
And here is the deal. Real professionals know that what is transpiring today is THE FIRST real modern age war in which NATO's best ever military proxy has been torn apart by Russia and one can almost smell the fear in NATO today. Naturally, they never saw anything like this and are not designed to fight like this, not to mention the level of casualties VSU sustains every day. No NATO country, especially the US, is capable of sustaining that. So, naturally, professional envy, sour grapes and hatred begin to affect the thinking in Pentagon. And it shows, because the only coping mechanism today is to tell tactical, operational and technological fairy tales, spiced up with a lot of wet dreaming and fantasies. We saw it at this Pentagon's press-conference.
... he talks about "drones" until finally he reaches the catharsis and says it:
Yes, it is a LOITERING MUNITION. Yes, it is also a drone, aka UAV, which happened to be "kamikaze". There is a reason military professionals like strict definitions. This is also a drone, or, to be more precise, an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV):
But, of course, it is not a loitering munition or "kamikaze" drone. "Kamikaze" drone IS a loitering munition. Lancet and its derivatives, including these "Iranian" drones (imbeciles continue to spew this BS about Iranian drones), ARE loitering munitions. So, I hope you get my point. Now, let's guess from three times, if one of the specially designed Lancets already plays a swarm leader, what is the connection between these swarm leaders and S-70 Okhotnik (Hunter) UAVs, who themselves are "wing-men" of SU-57 (and likely latest versions of SU-35). Boy, talk about military porn. The traffic in "reverse" mode has been restored on the Crimean Bridge.
