This is everything one needs to know about (lack of) thought process in London. Not to be outdone, of course, is BoJo's Defense Secretary Ben Wallace who graduated whatever number of weeks from Sandhurst and you can easily look up WHAT Sandhurst really is. Generally, looking at modern "products" of British education system you can see a lot of eccentricity, bordering on epatage, and huge deficiency in both professional (especially military) and statesmanship qualities. This is a problem with "humanities" educated people in general, and with people who graduate from what used to be grossly oversold as "elite" British institutions. Judging by BoJo and other UK "statesmen" such as Gavin Williamson whose military qualifications and education amounted to running a fireplace manufacturing shop and degree in Social Studies, when he was Defense Secretary, things are not going to get better in UK.
Judging by the pathetic state in which one finds UK today it is legitimate to conclude that UK's educational and elite-preparation systems are complete failures, which, if not for this pip squeak of a country being a member of NATO, produce imbeciles who may, indeed, unleash WW III in which UK will cease to exist in a matter of minutes. Well, try to explain this reality to some Oxford graduate who is "educated" in classics and English. But then again, I am on record about Western "elites" and even dedicated a large chapter on them in my latest book. And here we are: when Russian diplomats begin to state that next time Russia will sink whatever enters territorial waters, that matters and people better listen.
Now, the poor guy has to play Orwellian game of propaganda in British tabloids:
Of course, somebody forgot to tell him that there are at least four newest SSKs of project 636 patrolling the Black Sea waters, as I type this, each of them capable of a salvo of 6 3M54 Kalibrs ASM and carry also long range torpedoes which will have little trouble blowing anything out of the water and you cannot shake them off. This is just one of many ways Russia will deal with anything trying to violate her sovereignty. How about Captain of HMS Defender warns his own ignorant and reckless government about that. That will be a much better application of his commanding talents. It is about time UK elites faced the fact that their country is a lap dog and is insignificant economically and, especially, militarily and should behave accordingly.
After that Carter elaborated on the advantages Russia (and China) have when compared to combined West. Russia's MoD and its very own Igor Konashenkov, responding to John Kirby's "comments" nonchalantly stated obvious:
Translation: (Konashenkov) underscored that for Kirby, a former rear-admiral, who called the incident in the Black Sea a disinformation it should be well known that for Russian Armed Forces defending Crimea HMS Defender is nothing more than a fat target in any part of the Black Sea for Russia's anti-shipping missiles.
Kirby, who launched his naval career as SuWa (Surface Warfare) officer, should know how detection, tracking and targeting are done by Russians and what are saturation thresholds of all NATO AD complexes against all types of missiles deployed by Russians. He also should know what it means "tracking by weapon" (Слежение Оружием) and how salvos are formed. So, it is all so cute when people try to deny obvious, thus exposing themselves as guilty and weak party.
In related news, as I predicted for years, Russia started to deploy MiG-31Ks with Kinzhals to Syria and now conducts patrols over Mediterranean (in Russian). To give some idea what it all means--Kinzhal has a range of 2,000 kilometers (with the range of carrier-around 3,000 kilometers) at M=9+ velocity and maneuvers at terminal, making it impossible to intercept by any combination of existing AD means at NATO's disposal. To give an idea what it all means, here is some illustration.
Any Kinzhal launched from Latakia's airspace will reach a target in the Black Sea in about 5-7 minutes, while launched from the vicinity of Rostov even faster. When even Deputy Foreign Minister Ryabkov (forget Shoigu) states that " we are going to "bomb" them", one should take a note. And yes, there is no "cat and mouse" game, because targeting any NATO asset is continuous and is in real time. Guys, this is not 1980s, this is 2021 and Russians are really good at sensor fusion plus whatever they have in space, and they have a lot. So, the forms have been obeyed and Kirby should know well that right now Russian Navy's task group sails in the vicinity of Hawaii (strictly in the international waters, mind you) and who knows how many 3M14s are currently loaded in VLS of what is on the surface, but more importantly--what is under it.
Which should not surprise anyone, especially when talking about British media which all follow Goebbelsonian pattern in their propaganda. So, as was expected, Russia's FSB Border Guards released a video of warning shots fired by Russian Coast Guard ship.
Traditional procedure is targeting 5 thousands of distance behind the stern, then 5 thousands of distance forward of the bow of intruder, and then... Well, the conditions were somewhat different here and that is why Russia had several strike aircraft in the air. This is FSB, I am sure videos from Russian MoD will follow showing British lying as always. Today Shoigu stated that the next time intruders will be bombed. Russia has many guided and free-falling bombs at her disposal so if NATO wants to play Russian Roulette, they certainly can.
In all this story, however, what strikes one silly is the fact that imbeciles from Downing Street 10 and Whitehall continued to deny that anything happened at all. Dudes, it is 2021--Russians have cameras and Battle Management Systems on Russian ships have a documentation mode from all sensors. How stupid one should be denying the obvious, such as HMS Defender leaving territorial waters after warning shots, when Russians simply released video. So, please, don't continue with those fabulous stories about British cunning and artful diplomacy and experience of international intrigue when those cretins cannot even stage a false flag without real professionals having cramps from hysterical laughter--Skripal Affair, Steele Dossier, anyone--and now this. The military-intelligence top of Zamunda would have performed better and would have come up with more believable BS than British. Embarrassing.
The whole affair shows that you cannot negotiate anything with generally ungovernable and dysfunctional Anglo-Saxondom which is nothing more that a compilation of interest groups fighting for power and incapable to produce any political coherence--a MUST in any relations. There is a lot to talk about International Naval Salon and some new things which appeared at it today. I'll do it later.
The moment I was about to settle into the anticipation mode for the upcoming heat wave, bang, we have some pip squeak pretending that it can play a superpower. Everyone knows already that HMS Defender pretended that she is "stealth" and can defend something and violated territorial waters of Russia near Crimea. The warning shots have been fired and two OFAB-250 have been dropped on the course of British ship in full accordance to both International Law and Russia's Law of State Border and now British say that there were no shots fired and bombs dropped. Yes, yes, and UK is a global superpower and has freest political system and UK government never, like never-never, lies (all the time).
Here is UK naval attache in Moscow getting Russia's position expressed to him in Russian MoD. No sound, and rightly so--those things are seldom made public and, who knows, the British guy may be a very nice fellow who himself may feel embarrassed.
Now, the video of a couple of SU-24 doing their thing.
Now two aspects.
1. Military: BBC correspondent onboard of HMS Defender actually confirmed both artillery shots and bombing. Media also state that the crew of HMS Defender was on their stations during the incident and that indicates that they were doing this "on purpose". My hope is that British Admiralty, known today as Navy Department, understands that under such circumstances the issue here is not Russia easily sinking anything Royal Navy may decide to get into the Black Sea, but the fact that Russia, without going nuclear, can rearrange stones in London in such a way that those in British Defense Ministry who will survive will have to find proper new building to have a place to work, or serve.
I hope they explained this simple fact to all fine lads who man Royal Navy ships, together with the fact, that there will be no United States to help UK in case cretins in London unleash conflict, because there will be no United States. In fact, seeing UK--a secondary power, which has near zero real military capability and a real GDP smaller than that of Indonesia, and even that due to non-productive service economy--trying to play games adults play is rather funny, but it is also dangerous and it may come down to provocation resulting in Royal Navy ship sunk and squealing UK running to the US and NATO for support. British used to be really good at assessing forces, evidently not anymore. Well, they better look up basic salvo equations and see for themselves how many leakers are possible even against the most advanced Royal Navy's ECM and AD. I'll give a hint--many. I am sure Russians know what it takes to deal with Aster family. In other words, UK militarily is at best a lap dog with minimal military capability which is good only for starting the war, in which UK will cease to exist as a country, forget military force, in a matter of 20-30 minutes. I am sure someone knows this in London. After all, Russia is not exactly Argentina, and even there, at Falklands, the Royal Navy had its nose bloodied pretty badly.
2. Political. The UK is already fully declined power, which pretends that, because it has a developed banking sector and Royal Family, it matters. It does not for powers the scale of Russia, China or even the United States which are ungovernable at this moment. The days of glory for UK are long gone, with UK going into the second tier mode immediately after the WW II and then having this formalized by the US in the days of a Suez Crisis. So, the only services to its own grossly inflated ego the UK can offer are those of spoiler either on the service of globalist mafia infesting D.C. and London or in playing a pretend game that UK can develop its own coherent foreign policy. It surely can develop such a policy but it is not going to be coherent due to inability of London "elites" to think in appropriate terms, since British exceptionalism is even deeper seeded than the American one. Indeed, glorious Imperial past can do the trick on you and will make you lose a sense of scale and of proportion.
So, the UK can certainly continue to play big power games but, as is always the case with secondary or tertiary powers, they inevitably overstretch and then collapse. In fact, British history of the 20th century is exactly the exhibit A of a declining power trying to fight a global war and then recognizing that it simply ran out of resources. But that was in WW II. Today the UK is nowhere near, when prorated for the time period, of the UK (BI) of 1939 and is a country whose whole army can fit into the new Wembley Stadium and whose Navy still thinks that it can fight a serious war and survive. Those are dangerous delusions, but I, honestly, cannot recall in the recent two decades at least a single common sense foreign policy idea coming from London. But London has to face a reality that the times of a "big game" are long gone and Russia can wipe out the whole of UK with its navy and army in a matter of minutes, while UK cannot do the same to Russia--she is too damn strong and is in a different league across the board than UK. Simple as that, hence rabid Russo-phobia of British "upper" class. I can feel their pain.
That, in general, gives one a framework for the recent incident and somebody really needs one of the Royal Navy's ship to be send to the bottom and it is a matter of a educated guess where this criminal warmonger (or warmongers) is hiding primarily--in London, or in D.C. Something tells me that looking at Dieppe in August 1942 and such specimens as Mountbatten, who saw thousands of Canadians sacrificed for a murky political goal, may give an idea that there is no atrocity, or stupidity, or turpitude official London can fail to justify. We saw it today and that is typical. Russians know that.
