Randy and Me.

Live on Friday. 

Boy, This Senator And ...

... former astronaut hates Russians. I guess he still cannot resign himself to the fact that he and his exploits in Iraq against no air defense and no air force are irrelevant in modern world. 

It Has Been A Long Time ...

 ... since I mentioned this cretin Harry Kazianis who is nothing more than credentialed fraud with no professional anchor in anything other than BS. 

The boy continues to cope by spreading BS, with no grasp of how mobilization works in Russia and what math is.

"Russia now has a military manpower problem Putin just can't solve." That's what a senior NATO offical told me last week when I plotted out this article. And he is correct. For the first time since the full-scale invasion began in February 2022, Russia is losing soldiers on the battlefield faster than it can sign up new ones to replace them. This is the single most important development in the manpower story of the war, and it represents a genuine reversal of the arithmetic that sustained Russian operations for the first three years of the fighting. According to Ukrainian intelligence assessments, for four consecutive months from December 2025 through March 2026, the arrivals-to-departures balance has remained firmly negative, with Russian losses exceeding the number of soldiers Moscow actually managed to mobilize.

Oh, we know what shifted--NATO lost, US sustained humiliating defeat in Iran (as was predicted) and now massive campaign of coping, including through inventing absolute BS has begun. Truth is, Kazianis wouldn't understand the first thing about war, because Pentagon doesn't understand it, so some media whore with no real education and expertise certainly wouldn't get it. Math, real math which is in foundation of operational and strategic planning and modelling, and combat control, is not taught in political pseudo-science. I omit here physics and serious engineering (especially as system integrations and their use is concerned) and the whole notion that some guy with "degree" in international relations and polisci can have any ideas about modern war without long years at officer billets is down right risible. 

And even that is no guarantee of anything, judging by the laughable generals and admirals from the US military who avail their "views" to members of Congress and US legacy media. With the exception, of course, of CNO Admiral Daryl Caudle who without mincing words delivered a startling truth about Strait of Hormuz. It looks very bad for the US. In fact, the optics is so bad--reality, actually is even worse--that mediawhores are in force trying to cover up a disaster by means of telling fairy tales ... about Russia, of course. Obviously, explaining to Kazianis what that is:

And why late Colonel Dupuy was mistaken in basing his calculations on lethality (not to speak of tactical-operational impact of modern weapons and C4ISR) of modern war purely on historic data, without critical factors shaping the framework:

Lethality removed from the tactical-operational framework of modern war says very little (with the exception of generic knowledge of artillery still dominating the battlefield) about effects produced. That is why US military convulses between necessity for artillery shells production and learning to its astonishment about ineffectiveness of its weapons' arsenal. E.g. US views on air defense have no connection to reality and the "lessons", especially as provided by 404, will not be learned. So ... Russia runs out of men. What else is left? Ah yes, Putin is about to be overthrown by hungry and poor Russian people and he already slipped on the stairs, fell and soiled himself--this is a fine tradition of many military "experts" in the West, who cannot resign themselves to the fact that the shift, indeed, did occur and it is not the one Kazianis or Brussels like. 

Schumpeter saw it very early: 

All those who are unemployed or unsatisfactorily employed or unemployable drift into the vocations in which standards are least definite or in which aptitudes and acquirements of a different order count. They swell the host of intellectuals in the strict sense of the term whose numbers hence increase disproportionately. 

That's Kazianis and his ilk of butthurt redundant class selling BS. In related news--yep, they wouldn't understand this math:

No tool kit. 

Open Thread.

 Very busy today. 

Thank You, Scott.

Karaganov is nothing more than the so called political pseudo-scientist who never was adviser to anyone, never held any government position, and whose ONLY occupation is to promote himself. He has zero military background, he has zero understanding of the warfare, especially nuclear one and ignores, non-stop, Russia's obligations and such documents as Foundations of the State Policy (of Russian Federation) on Nuclear Containment. He is a hack who uses his PR persona to articulate idiotic amateurish ideas on a subject he has no clue about other than one-liners from people who do hold serious positions in Russian military-political hierarchy and who are professionals. Admittedly Karaganov has some access to such people.

My warnings about Karaganov in the West are very weak and could easily be dismissed because of a number of possible excuses which could be made about my background and possible biases. But this is gold. Karaganov cannot create any doctrine (which is the system of the views) because he has no system and professional views to do so. It is fallacy, not a "doctrine" and I am glad Scott made this video. 

Some Explosions.

1. Fly in;

2. Find a stack of 404 mines;

3. Detonate them; 

4. Observe results))

Meanwhile:

This is for lovers of drones. 

ZDF Blocked Access ...

 ... but here is an attempt to still link it. 

Rachel and Me ...

 ... today. 

Nima and Me ...

 ... live in 30 minutes. 

The LOL of the Month))

I mean, in the world of morons this shit will fly. 

The U.S. has the most powerful military in human history. It also hasn’t won a war in more than 30 years.

I have news for this guy: in Orwell's 1984 it is called doublethink. Here is definition: Doublethink is a process of indoctrination in which subjects are expected to simultaneously accept two conflicting beliefs as truth, often at odds with their own memory or sense of reality. With CV as his, it is no surprise: Ivo Daalder, a former U.S. ambassador to NATO, is a senior fellow at Harvard University’s Belfer Center and host of the weekly podcast “World Review with Ivo Daalder.” He writes POLITICO’s From Across the Pond column. 

Yes, he is a "political pseudo-scientist" from Oxford's degree mill and he wouldn't know a first thing about warfare and operations despite studying in another degree mill in London, this time in "Strategic Studies". Because of that, he is an Exhibit A of military and strategic incompetence, which also applies to large swaths of NATO's purely military top brass, most of who wouldn't qualify for battalion commander in Russian Army. But sure, US military is "a finest fighting force in history", especially when it comes to rewriting said history. 

Correct, Tony.

Russia doesn't need Europe--you have nothing to offer Russia and you will be destroyed. Gestures mean nothing without guts, India. 

Rzeszow Gets Visitors.

 Many of them, for some reason of medevac and transport variety. 

Plus three A-322 from Spain and Germany. I guess, it has no relation to strikes at Kiev and Oreshnik visiting Belaya Tserkov'. None whatsoever;) Meanwhile NATO losers and cowards continue with their MO: 

Militants of the Armed Forces of Ukraine attacked a gymnasium in Svatove, Lugansk People's Republic (LPR), with the help of drones. This was announced by the head of the region Leonid Pasechnik in the messenger "Max". "The Ukronazis continue to hit the cities of the republic. Enemy UAVs attacked the Svatove municipal district and Severodonetsk," he wrote. Pasechnik noted that as a result of one of the attacks, the building of the Svatove gymnasium No7 was damaged - the blow fell on the roof of the building. Fortunately, there were no children there, he added.

Europa delenda est! 

Andrei Kartapolov ...

 ... in a very short statement. 

Translation: there are no untouchable persons (особ) for our armed forces and weapons. 

Особа--Лицо, личность. Почтенная особа. (venerable, important person). Make your own conclusions. For those people who still do not understand who Andrei Kartapolov is (he is not Karaganov or Dugin), here is a reminder. 

Explanation From ...

 ... the highest level professional. 

The head of the State Duma's Defense Committee, Andrey Kartapolov, ruled out strikes on the Verkhovna Rada and Volodymyr Zelensky's office. In an interview with the "Parliamentary Gazette", he stated that the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and the president's office are not "decision-making centers" that could be targeted in strikes. "Deputies do not control the troops and do not determine where and when to launch strikes. The same can be said about the office of the President of Ukraine. We all understand that Zelensky doesn't appear there. He sits in a bunker, and in his office there are two guards and five cleaners. Does it make sense to spend expensive ammunition on, in effect, an empty place?", said Kartapolov, commenting on suggestions that the targets of Russian strikes could include a complex of government buildings in the center of Kyiv.

Kartapolov explained that "in this case, decision-making centers refer to the deepened and protected command posts of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, their branches, units, possibly other security structures, including state administration structures". According to him, such facilities are not located in the center of Kyiv, but are hidden and fortified structures. Kartapolov also did not rule out attacks on bridges across the Dnieper, but noted that they were designed by Soviet engineers and built by Soviet builders from Soviet materials with the expectation that they could withstand hundreds of strikes. Therefore, their destruction would require a large number of powerful ammunition. According to him, such strikes will become possible when Russian heavy aerial bombs can reach strategically important crossings.

Answering the question of whether Volodymyr Zelensky himself could be a target of a strike, the deputy replied that this is determined by "only one person - our Supreme Commander-in-Chief". Therefore, on this issue, he would prefer "not to engage in speculation". 

So, make you own conclusion but read attentively what Kartapolov says. 

I Agree ...

 ... this is exactly what I told RT yesterday. Medvedev merely underscored. 

So, some parts of today's Kiev look like this. This is just a warmup. 

So, if EU thinks that Russians give a damn about some German or French diplomats, I have a bridge to sell. They all will die if they will be within the blasts' ranges and to hell with them. Europe is Russia's existential enemy and in its present form it must die. It will. 

Oh Please, Rick!

As if you don't know how it works, you have been CNN anchor yourself. West's legacy media, such as BBC, CNN et al are nothing but goebbelsian homicidal propaganda with majority of those people being nothing but enablers of war crimes and genocide. 

Rick Sanchez slams BBC and CNN over college massacre site no-show (VIDEO). How can they call themselves journalists when they cover one story and completely ignore another, the host of RT’s Sanchez Effect has said. 

Goebbels never killed anyone personally, but he knew who he was and he knew his only outcome was in hanging from the gallows. So, he did this:

Appealing to some abstract "journalism"--a euphemism for prostitution--is akin to trying convince a reptile that it has the ability to learn calculus in a week. Journalism is not a profession or a craft, I know it without the prompt from Hunter Thompson, I knew it since a very long time ago. Average journo from the West has no humanity, morality or honor. This "jornalism" has been smeared forever with its own feces and belongs behind bars of history's judgement. Alternative reporting is already a thing. Real analysis is a whole other universe in which reporting is but a small part of a vast tool kit which no journo has. 

This Is Not A Joke.

It is real news. Brazil's President Lula was diagnosed with the early stage of skin cancer and today started his radiation therapy. We obviously wish him well, sincerely, but this is really called for. 

Sometimes it is good to be selective with whose hand you are shaking. 

Just Look ...

 ... at these faces. 

NATO animals were making sure that those who rushed to save them will also be killed. 

Sir, Mister O'Keefe ...

 ... you are a true American, and I salute You! I just got off the podcast with other three American heroes and patriots. 

Garland, Larry, Scott and Yours Truly ...

 ... live in 20 minutes. 

Russia Does Not Negotiate ...

 ... with terrorists. NATO is a terrorist entity. After Kiev Europe is next. 

Europe, Get Ready.

And that's the issue those NATO cowards do not understand--offering talks is not a sign of weakness. Well, they are defenseless and it is time to see the future of Europe. 

MOSCOW, May 25 — RIA Novosti. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov informed US Secretary of State Marco Rubio about the beginning of successive strikes on decision-making centers in Ukraine. "Lavrov officially brought to the American side the information that in response to the ongoing terrorist attacks of the Kyiv regime against the civilian population and civilian objects on Russian territory, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation are launching systematic and consistent strikes on facilities located in Kyiv," the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

I am 100% positive that Lavrov informed Rubio about the next step. You all know what the next step will be and the US has no way to do anything about it. I explain some interesting developments concurrent with the visits by hypersonic weapons to Kiev and Belaya Tserkov', among many, in my today's video. 

Again, Reiteration ...

 ... report per Russian MoD. 

MOSCOW, May 24 — RIA Novosti. The Russian army attacked targets associated with the military leadership of Ukraine during a retaliatory strike, the Ministry of Defense. "Among those hit during the massive strike in Kyiv and Kyiv region <... > facilities of the Ukrainian military-industrial complex, military infrastructure, as well as command posts of the Main Command of the Ground Forces, the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense and other command posts of the Armed Forces of Ukraine," the report says. The ministry stressed that no attacks on civilian infrastructure were planned and did not occur. Earlier on Sunday, the department said that the Russian army struck Ukrainian military facilities, including Oreshnik, Kinzhal, Iskander and Zircon missiles. It achieved all the goals and was a response to the terrorist attacks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on civilian targets.

As you may have guessed it, NATO criminals are doing everything they can to censor any info coming out of destroyed sites, especially around Belaya Tserkov (literally White Church) airfield complex which contained many things ranging from bunkers to aviation repair and "mad maxing" facilities for all kinds of flying means for strikes against Russia.  

Again, terrorism against Russian civilians will continue--UAVs and hence striking schools, dormitories, kindergartens et al are the only real means of "influencing" anything by allegedly creating dissatisfaction within Russian society with Kremlin and discrediting Russian leadership--this is the way primitive inbred and pervert cretins in London, Berlin and Paris think. Militarily NATO is impotent and terrorism is the only weapon they have. This IS the spread, so to speak. At this stage, Europeans must be made to have chronic diarrhea from fear of Russia. Non stop, they need to live in paralyzing fear because Europe is a Satanists' playground. 

Next time it could be Berlin or Paris and they can do nothing about it. 

We see nothing: How has the West reacted to the Ukrainian strike on a Russian school dorm? Kiev’s backers refuse to acknowledge Kiev’s drone raid on Starobelsk that left at least 18 students dead and dozens more injured. 

They are the essence of Europe. Animals. 

Here Are Some Additional ...

 ... views from 404. Strikes by hypersonics (Oreshnik, Zircon, Kinzhal) and cruise missiles. And Geraniums, of course. 

Kiev-1

Another one:

And another.

Updates will follow. 

Good Students.

Minab 2.0. 

Open Thread.

 Go at it. 

It Was A Hybrid.

But I deliberately NEVER park next to Teslas. Now I will avoid hybrids, primarily in the underground garages. 

For Those Who Still Don't Get It.

Terrorism (three waves of UAVs at defenseless vocational college with kids inside) and increased number of NATO's hospital planes in Rzeszow (after especially serious strikes on Dnepropetrovsk) are directly related. This is what NATO does. So, for all these "vengeance strikes" specialists--here is how decisions are made in Russia. 

MOSCOW, May 22 — RIA Novosti. Vladimir Putin discussed with members of the Russian Security Council the strike by Ukrainian militants on the Starobilsk Pedagogical College in the LPR. "Today we have a question related to work in the field of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, but I would like to start with what I have already talked about today at a meeting with graduates of the first stream of the Time of Heroes - with the terrorist attack of the Kiev junta in the Lugansk People's Republic," he said. The President asked the participants of the meeting to give their assessments or proposals on this topic. Earlier today, Putin instructed the Ministry of Defense to prepare proposals for a response to the attack, and the Foreign Ministry to tell the international community about the crime by Armed Forces of Ukraine.

It really becomes nauseating reading the same thing over and over again on discussion  boards: Russia must ..., Russia should ... etc. Yes, Russia's Security Council is composed of idiots who don't know what to do and yes, they are about to give up/s. Get a grip--terrorism against Russia and Russian civilians will continue--this is what the combined West is. Once long-range threat will be removed--and it will be--sleeper cells, blowing of schools, government offices et al. sabotage of railway will continue. This is for SK, FSB, MVD and other structures to handle. They are really good at it--it is just that you do not see and hear much about their work and an enormous number of terrorist acts they prevented. 

In related news, in Kharkov Oblast the mandatory mobilization of women has started. Deadly PR actions are designed for brainwashed hoi polloi to concentrate on that, not on the fact that they are running out of cannon fodder. Per Europe--this is who they are, Fourth Reich. It will be destroyed. How? Leave it to professionals who know dozens of orders of magnitude more than any of us does. I repeat again for those with comprehension issues--Russia IS prepared for the war with NATO, not with 404. Those who perpetrate these acts like attack on children, be them American, British, German, Polish, CIA, MI6, BND or whatever--they will be hunted down either as individuals or as units and they will be killed. Simple as ... 

They Are Very Good Students ...

 ... of their American masters. They attacked dormitory of the vocational college in Starobelsk (LNR) housing 85 students. 35 children are wounded--different degrees. Some are still under rubble. 

That's NATO's "way of war". 

Lokomotiv Yaroslavl ...

 ... won Gagarin Cup. Vladimir Putin already congratulated the Club. As you can see yourself hungry destitute Yaroslavites celebrate. 

All emaciated from hunger and sanctions. I am sure some herpes from BBC will report uprising in Yaroslavl. 

Yeah, It Is Not Just About ...

 ... governance (with Israel owning institutes of power in the US). 

Nope, it is about more than that--it is about erasing American identity and it proceeds apace. Americans must become Israelites or cease to exist as a historical community of primarily (not exclusively) European offspring. 

While Russian Economy Collapses;))

Russia continues her commercial airline assault. Here is from Kazan two days ago. For now just mockup, which means it is already in works for real. 

Enter Tupolev-454. Yes, it is Andrei Tupolev's portrait on the tail. Alaska Airlines smiled). A bit of hype (nothing goes without hype nowadays) by stating that this is "a response to B-787 and A-350". The key is, of course, PD-26 jet engine. This motor will give this aircraft the range of up to 15,000 km. 

As you might expect the final decision, made in September last year,  by Vladimir Putin on accelerated completion of PD-26 (it uses "hot" core from PD-35) gave birth, mostly by all kinds of the so called "experts", to all kinds of BS which has nothing to do with constant acceleration of work on all types of Russian commercial aircraft. Now fully certified and in serial production PD-14 will have PD-8 added soon, with PD-8 finishing certification (all documents and data have been submitted for expertise) and PD-26 next for tests on actual airframe. Mind you--all of it, including FADEC (Full Authority Digital Engine Control) is fully Russian-built. Well, you may find a capacitor or two made in China there. 

So, it is official now Tupolev design bureau is officially IN for this interesting not so much race between Yakovlev (MC-21), Sukhoi SJ-100, Ilyushin (IL-114) but, let's call it a competition, which begins to look very much as good ol' Soviet days with each of the design bureaus given their own segment where they have to deliver. They all are now under the aegis of the UAC--United Aircraft Corporation, which in itself is a part of a technological monster of Rostec.   

Meanwhile, many continue to marvel at this aircraft)

Again, as Andrei Tupolev stated--only beautiful aircraft fly well (c). Tu-454 looks good, very good. 

Everything Is Driven ...

 ... by PR by people with zero understanding of the tactical-technical and operational realities of modern warfare. So, they lament and come up with BS. 

Australia’s controversial decision to transfer 49 retired M1A1 Abrams Main Battle Tanks (MBTs) to Ukraine remains a source of contention among Western allies. That’s because the performance of those older Australian tanks has highlighted the weaknesses of MBTs in modern combat more generally, and, specifically, has shown that the vaunted Abrams MBT might not be the king of battle any longer.

Two points:

1. MBT is "weakened" in NATO (US) only whose staff structures do not understand that 404 poured Niagara of military BS into their ears, which tells you about a very low intellectual level of those staffers who missed the whole point that if anything else MBTs resurrected themselves as a critical element of modern battlefield and Russian tanks can take punishment no NATO tank can. But then again--NATO was building its fighting doctrine based on fairy tales from defeated Wehrmacht generals. I already elaborated on this matter here. 

2. Abrams IS vaunted, much talked up. It is not a good tank(c) per Colonel Macgregor who commanded a regiment of those. There is very little military (combat) value in blowing away backward monkey model (basic ballistic computer and basic optics) Iraqi T-72As and totally another meeting something like T-72B3 let alone T-90V Proryv which are fully netcentric systems with excellent optronic suite, comms and most importantly great gun and ability to launch ATGMs through it. 

So, it all comes down to PR and carefully constructed US military mythology which has very little if anything to do with the reality--only with this: 

Michael Bay has been tapped to direct a movie centered around Operation Epic Fury at Universal Pictures, the studio confirmed Wednesday. The untitled film tells the true story of a massive rescue effort to save two pilots downed during the April 2026 attacks in Iran. The film adapts a book from Mitchell Zuckoff coming in 2027 from Harper Collins.

Well, you get my drift, right? 

Nima and Me...

 ... live in 45 minutes. 

Yet Another Reminder ...

 ... for consumers of Hollywood version of war and owners of the movie Patton DVD. Pentagon doesn't have experience with this whatsoever, the US excels at killing civilians. Here is Lavrov on the issue, again: 

MOSCOW, May 20 - RIA Novosti. During a special military operation, Russia does not want to cause excessive damage to the territories where Russian people live, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said. "We are consistently solving the tasks of the special military operation. President Russia Vladimir Putin I have repeatedly said that we do not use the means that we could use, because we do not want to cause excessive damage to the territories where, by and large, our people live, whom the Nazis are trying to suppress," he said Lavrov in Interview Shanghai Media Group SMG. He noted that about 80 settlements were liberated in 2026, including 35 in March and April.

Let me remind you again--NO US serviceman ever fought in modern times in defense of own country and experienced the loss of everything dear to him (her)--loved ones, property et al. This war factor is absent from American military psyche and culture. That is why US "elites" view cautious approach in SMO and Russia' openness to negotiations as a weakness not an attempt to avoid inflicting unnecessary suffering. That is why German so called "historians" love so much fairy tales about Red Army "raping" millions upon millions German women based on a data on abortions from a single Berlin hospital--much of it unreliable--it is an attempt to cover up atrocities and crimes against humanity of the European Third Reich. That is why many want to believe delirious delusions about millions of Red Army soldiers "executed by NKVD"--anything to cover an ugly mug of a civilization which continues to murder all around the world. 

I want to remind you again--Russian drone. 

Things like that happen every day in former 404. Enough to say that initially this video was stolen and presented by ... VSU and their NATO handlers as 404 drone saving Ukie family--honor, humanity, consciousness do not exist in the West and their convulsing bloody Nazi regime in Kiev. 

The Fate of Il-96-400.

Vladimir Putin departing Beijing on President's Il-96-300 and when you look at the Il-96-300 you cannot fail to notice the elegance, if not outright beauty, of this plane. No, this is not Russian rah-rah. I, for once, consider B-747-400 to be one of the most beautiful aircraft in history, but Il-96-300 is an aerodynamic porn. 

Russia does have a very dynamic program for PD-26 (PD-35) engine which theoretically could serve as a substitution for a couple of reliable and still modern PS-90-As on each wing (or rather consoles--planes have only one wing and two consoles). As Andrei Tupolev famously noted--only beautiful aircraft fly well(c). Il-96-300 (400) is this beautiful aircraft, ironically from a rival of Tupolev's own design bureau. I personally love Ilyushin (and later Genrikh Novozhilov's) magnificent machines. I always felt safe in them, and comfortable. 

A few of them still fly. But they are a dying breed, Il-96? Is re-motorising possible for Il-96. For once, the wing will have to redesigned dramatically--one massive engine instead of two large ones. That immediately affects fuselage--loading everywhere changes. I can tell you one thing though, these four engine monsters will continue to fly, including its latest iteration--Il-96-400M. 

And what I want to say here--FUCK you, airlines, and your "bottom line" and profit margins. Despite all this talk about increased reliability--and it is true to a large degree--of the modern jet engines which pushed on us two-engine design of modern commercial aircraft, but ... 

... these are four engines which give these aircraft their unique and beautiful look. And yes, all professionals agree--four engines even today are better in terms of safety than two. My heart ached when they rolled out the last B-747 from a gigantic facility in Everett. 

No Uncertain Terms.

Rick, it was Zelenograd. Scott gives a very good rundown and yes, China is aware of all proceedings. Rumor has it--there are China's military people who are embedded with Russian MoD. 

Spirit of Beijing ...

 ... and 87% of British military delusion. 

A Short But A Very ...

... good graphics on global balance of power through Iran War scam by the US and Israel. 

Semantics.

Recall Orwell, newspeak--it is all about neurolinguistic programming. The removal or obscuring the meaning. 

"He slammed", "she scorched", "they annihilated" and on, and on, and on. This is how not only herpes of American legacy journalism talks using aggressive militant rethoric, this is how US top brass expresses itself. It is a pathetic attempt at hiding own impotency and failure. Remarkably, real military professionals in Russia continue to express themselves even at the highest political level in dry, precise military terms. If misunderstood--they will give you a precise definition, a meaning that is, of the terms they use. Here Commander of CENTCOM Admiral Brad Cooper is being brought back to reality in purely linguistic terms. 

The Visit Has Officially ...

 ... begun. Now to real work. 

Let Me Tell You ...

 ... immediately comes to mind ... Chicago, 1979, American Airlines Flight 191. DC-10. Now ... same type of plane MD-11, exactly same horror--losing engine at the take-off. 

The reasons for two crashes are different of course, in case of AA Flight 191 all possible instructions during servicing and reattaching left engine have been violated, including forced tightening of the the bolt. Here--metal fatigue. 

Sulaiman Ahmed and Me.

 Live now. 

Financial Times ...

 ... is a human sewer, because normal people do not work there. They do not work in media in general--human waste does. 

President Xi Jinping told US President Donald Trump during their high-level summit last week that Russian President Vladimir Putin may ultimately end up regretting his full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The revelation, first reported by the Financial Times citing officials familiar with the US assessment of the Beijing summit, comes at a delicate diplomatic moment. The information surfaced just as Putin is about to arrive in China for a critical bilateral summit with Xi.

But then ...

Well, from the boss' mouth, verbatim. Real boss meanwhile ...

For simpletons who believe that Putin's visit is somehow related to Trump's--I have a bridge to sell. This visit has been in preparation for a long time and 40+ contracts are to be signed and communique to be issued including declaration of the fait accompli of multipolar world. In related news, Boeing confirmed contract for 200 aircraft, primarily B-737 with the option of additional 750. It will be interesting to see what will be agreed upon between China and Russia in this sector. 

A Warning To One "User" ...

 ... he knows who he is, recently (a few days back) he brought in another pile of bovine Neural Network (AI) excrement from 404 propaganda creep Mylovanov about Ryazan. This was from this "source". Here is an example of the quality of these "sources" (all of them under the supervision and control of GUR, SBU, MI6 and CIA). Sappy sentimental bullshit they feed 404 and West's hoi polloi. 

Translation: 12 year old Ukrainian boy saved his brothers and sisters, doing what many soldiers cannot do under pressure. Anatoly Prohorenko grabbed fiberoptic cable, directly connected to Russia (yes, it was directly connected to Putin's office in Kremlin) and stopped the drone seconds before it struck children playing not far from his house.  

There will be many imbeciles who will swallow this hook, line and sinker and you cannot help them, but I will start banning people who continue to bring this shit to this forum from all kinds of infosewers and propaganda outlets like this. Coming soon to a forum near you--11 years old girl from Kiev stopped Oreshnik seconds from it hitting her brothers and sisters playing near her home. The girl is in stable conditions in hospital, recovering from this ordeal. Well, in related news--404 drones destroyed Russian industry (all of it), Moscow is in ruins and Putin is ready to escape and hide in China. In all, if anyone wants to consume infogarbage, be my guest but not in this blog. 

The Best Version Of ...

 ... Erika, with a major purely instrumental segment. I mean it. It is great march and this version is the best. 

Now that I have your attention with this tender sentimental German music piece about the girl, flowers and bees--introduction to FOBS. That is Fractional Orbital Bombardment System. As you might expect, Russians had something to do with it, like in inventing it. Here is some historic background: 

Soviet interest in global or orbital attack options appeared early in the space age. The same rocket progress that made human spaceflight possible also made military planners think about routes that bypassed existing warning networks. By the early 1960s, Soviet design bureaus were studying systems that could exploit orbital mechanics for nuclear delivery. Sergei Korolev pursued the GR-1 concept, while other design teams advanced rival ideas. The system that moved toward deployment came from Mikhail Yangel ’s design bureau as the R-36O, also known by its GRAU designation 8K69. American intelligence tracked these efforts with rising concern. Declassified intelligence estimates from the 1960s tied Soviet tests to either a fractional orbital bombardment system, a depressed-trajectory ICBM, or both. Those estimates reflect a period when the United States still faced real uncertainty about Soviet technical direction. That uncertainty mattered in itself. A weapon that complicates warning can alter decisions even before it reaches maturity, because military planning has to account for possibility as well as established fact. 

So, I merely use available (and good) information here and here is a very decent explanation of what FOBS is. 

A useful definition has to separate FOBS from three related categories that are often mixed together. The first is the ordinary ICBM. An ICBM does not go into orbit. It climbs, coasts on a ballistic trajectory through space, then reenters. The second is a true orbital bombardment system, which would place a nuclear weapon into full orbit and potentially keep it there until commanded to attack. The third is the modern pairing of an orbital or near-orbital booster with a hypersonic glide vehicle . That pairing can look FOBS-like from the outside, yet the operational logic is not identical. The Soviet system sat between the first two categories. It used orbital flight as a partial path, but not a standing bomb-in-orbit posture.

Correct for highlighted in yellow. I also omit here any legal points because the US abrogated pretty much every single arms control treaty, so it is irrelevant for the Russian (and ONLY in the world) variant of FOBS. Enter RS-28 Sarmat, it is a 200 ton monster with a payload of 10 tons with Power-to-equipment ratio (энерговооруженность), aka PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness) without rivals in nuclear delivery systems. 

In missile engineering, the power-to-equipment ratio refers to the relationship between the available propulsion power (thrust, specific impulse, or energy output) and the total mass of the missile’s propulsion system and other equipment. It is a key performance metric that influences range, speed, payload capacity, and overall mission effectiveness. 

There is no contest, Sarmat is a FOBS system and it can deliver the payload to ranges unheard of before--35,000 + kilometers. Here is illustration from WiKi:

It launches in any direction it wants and inserts up to ten Yu-71(74) Avangards into suborbital path, after that you know the story. Mach=27, violent maneuvers et al. And it is always cute how Early Warning Systems (radar and sats) are presented in graphics as if somehow they make a difference--they don't, because there is nothing out there capable of real intercepts of hypersonic systems of any kind anywhere in the West. In other words, FOBS doesn't even need to fly around the world and attack from the "behind" of early warning installation most of which are directed at the North Pole. It can fly towards them and they literally are useless in any role other than the tripwire. Kinetically the US, let alone Europe, are simply defenseless. No professional will take mentioning of GBI (Ground Based Interceptors) in such conversation seriously. They also are useless. Hey, don't blame Russians--they wanted to preserve ABM Treaty, but some neocons with degrees in political "science" thought that Russia is backward. Well ... 

As you might expect, there is a whole lotta coping going on in the Western media. Vladimir Putin was dead wrong in 2018 when he stated that the West (well, US) is 5-7 years behind Russia in hypersonic weapons and anti-hypersonic defense. Looks today more like 15-17 years, at best, in hypersonic weapons. In terms of something equaling S-500 (550), S-300V4 and A-325--maybe 20-25, if ever. After SMO and Iran, the US air and anti-missile defense cannot be taken seriously, especially in matters involving latest generations of intercontinental delivery systems with the US still deploying 1970s, granted updated, technology of Minuteman-III and 1980s technology of Trident II-D5. And that brings us to this:

Mozyr’s cancellation in 1991 was a victim of Soviet collapse, not failure of technology. Some histories claim that work was suspended to prevent triggering U.S. withdrawal from the 1972 ABM Treaty a treaty which, as subsequent analysis reveals, limited deployment of systems that could defend ICBM fields. The United States investigated an analogous concept, “Swarmjet,” for its MX missile silos, employing thousands of unguided rockets, but it did not get beyond design studies.

What is Mozyr? Here:

Modern computational capabilities brought this system back and Sarmats' silos will be defended, apart from their hardened reinforced design, by this system starting this year. Mozyr creates an impenetrable projectile field at the elevation of the 6 kilometers which disables any MIRV. If MIRV detonates at this elevation it represents no danger to silos' functionality. Remember this BS about some super-duper "trigger" for MIRVs of Trident II D5? It was a desperate attempt to somehow detonate MIRVs at least closer to the target (silo) because of the low yield and very bad accuracy of Trident's MIRVs when launched on suppressed trajectories for faster delivery. Basic physics.

The CEP (Circular Error Probable) in this mode increases to many hundreds of meters as opposed claimed for Trident II D5 as 100 meters. FYI--Avangard's CEP is ... 10 meters. When I say that the United States lost the arms race--I mean it, it is not a hyperbole. Then, of course, consider the fact that the Avangard FOBS flies around the world at will, while the range of Trident II D5 is 11,500 km. 

Now, you may ask, especially after listening to fairy tales by some MIT professor, and how can Russians control Avangards during flight, especially when it flies around the world. Well, for those who still believe that Russian Early warning System is blind--a reminder. Russia operates a constellation (currently 6 satellites) of Kupol Early Warning System which flies at Tundra Orbits with a very long so called dwelling period. 

There are always multispectral satellites looking down at the Earth from the apogee of 36,000 kilometers. But those are not just Early Warning satellites for Russia's SPRN, Kupol controls Russia's nuclear forces providing constant communications for any element of Russia's strategic nuclear forces. As you may have already surmised, this also includes Avangards which are fully controlled no matter trajectory. In other words, this is the most advanced system of the strategic containment in history. Now back to my favorite version of Erika.