In A Fairy Tales World...

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? 

GEN. MILLEY: So Missy, the -- I'd offer two things. One is, you know, what's the military problem to solve here with the air power? And it's control of the airspace, and you can do that two ways. You can do that air-to-air or you can do that from the ground to the air. In terms of the most effective and efficient and cost-effective way to do that right now for the Ukrainians is from ground to air through air defense systems, and that's what they've been provided from the beginning if this war 'til now. And that's important, because what you want to do is protect those assault forces from Russian close-air support and/or attack-helicopter support, and they've got air defense systems, the Ru- -- Ukrainians do, that can do that. The casualties that the Ukrainians are suffering on this offensive are not so much from Russian airpower; they're from minefields, minefields that are covered with direct fire from anti-tank hunter-killer teams, that sort of thing. So it's minefields. So the problem to solve is minefields, not the air piece right this minute. And that's what the coalition is trying to provide them: additional mine clearing, MICLICs, line charges, Bangalores -- that sort of thing, in order to continue to work their way through the minefields.

And then he proceeds:

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. 

Yeah, Good Luck With That.

France, as was anticipated, started to complain and take "actions". 

French shipbuilder Naval Group has said it will send a “detailed and calculated proposal” to Australia after Canberra canned a $40 billion submarine deal in favor of a new pact with the US and UK, much to France’s dismay. On Wednesday, Naval Group CEO Pierre Eric Pommellet told France’s Le Figaro newspaper that Australia would be receiving a bill for the submarine contract which was cancelled last week. Pommellet said a “detailed and calculated proposal” would be sent to Canberra in the next “few weeks” which sets out the money it expects Australia to cough up for cancelling the 2016 deal. The shipbuilder chief said that such an eventuality had been planned for by the French firm.The bill will supposedly cover costs already incurred as well as those to come, with some “linked to demobilization of infrastructure and IT as well as the redeployment of employees,” he said, adding that the company will assert its rights.

Any chance of me getting on the French legal team which will be dealing with this issue? I expect a financial bonanza for lawyers in this matter. But, on the other hand, one has to keep in mind that at this level, same as was with hapless Mistrals' deal (awarded to France by Russia for "mediation" after Russian-Georgian War of 080808), geopolitics and operational realities play as large, if not larger, role as financial considerations, however important $40 billion are. As I continue to stress for the last week: we still don't have all facts on our hands in terms of American-Australian intentions and I want to underscore--we are merely speculating for now. If lease comes through, things will become much clearer. Some are even suggesting the possibility of US converted Ohio-class SSGNs leased out to Australia. I doubt it, but I could be wrong. Obviously with a single Ohio-class SSGN packing 154 TLAMs this is a concern for China. But then again--I stress it--for now it is mostly a speculation. 

 

I personally lean towards SSNs on SLOCs, but we just have to wait and see. As for French grievances, well, what can I say--geopolitical weight of players is too different, not in France's favor, for France to have any reasonable chances on substantial compensation, not to speak of a wounded national pride. Thanks to Larch for pointing this out. 

HELSINKI, Finland (AP) — The top U.S. military officer met with his Russian counterpart Wednesday, against the backdrop of U.S. struggles to get military basing rights and other counterterrorism support in countries bordering Afghanistan — a move Moscow has flatly opposed. The meeting in the Finnish capital, Helsinki, between Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Chief of the Russian General Staff Gen. Valery Gerasimov comes at a crucial time in the wake of the military withdrawal from Afghanistan. Without troops on the ground, the U.S. needs to forge more basing, intelligence sharing and other agreements to help monitor al-Qaida and Islamic State militants in Afghanistan to ensure they are not regrouping and posing a threat to America and its allies. Russia’s deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, said in July, however, that Moscow warned the U.S. that any deployment of American troops in countries neighboring Afghanistan “is unacceptable.” He said Russia told the U.S. “in a direct and straightforward way that it would change a lot of things not only in our perceptions of what’s going on in that important region, but also in our relations with the United States.”

As I am on record for years--I feel better when Russian and American militaries speak to each-other. Russia, obviously, is not going to allow US troops to be stationed in all those Stans, but I want to stress another tremendously important point: there IS a very real threat of Jihad and terrorism which should not be discounted against the background of the US escape from Afghanistan. We can only speculate (yet again) on a complexity of this issue, but it is an established fact that exchange between Russia and US regarding these matters exists and it is steady. Well, the United States can only blame itself for this development, with special thanks to Zbig, who due to him being a rather fanatical Russophobe and a pseudo-scholar thought that the United States can manage Political Islam it helped to create and fund. We all know how American political "science" works in real life, ask Fukuyama, late Huntington or present day Mearsheimer who got lost completely in their ignorance of the outside world.  But then again, it is a defining feature of American "academe" and elites. The proof, as it is known, is in the pudding, or as Hegel stated--practice is the criterion of the truth. Those who are not brainwashed are well aware of this truth.    

In related news, Russia continues to build and launch those pesky missile corvettes capable of carrying anything from 3M14M and 3M54M to Zircon, like there is no tomorrow. The latest one, two days ago was launched in Kerch, at Zaliv wharf. 

This one is named Askold after the famous Russian cruiser of Russo-Japanese war and of Gallipoli fame. It (she) still has to have navalized Pantsir and other systems installed. Can you imagine a ceremony at Zaliv when first project 23900 LHD will be launched? I hope to live to see this. I am sure HIMSELF will be present for this occasion. I am also in a desperate anticipation of Admiral Nakhimov getting more publicity and getting ready for sea trials in 2023. I cannot recognize this world anymore. The changes in the last 5 years are stunning and historic in scale and scope.

This Is...

Project 68-Bis Soviet Light Cruiser Mikhail Kutuzov:

It now serves as a museum in Novorossiisk and it is named after the savior of Russia from Napoleon, Count and Field-Marshal Mikhail Illarionovich Kutuzov. Kutuzov owned Russian serfs and was a rather rich man. So was legendary Alexander Vasilievich Suvorov. Suvorov, apart from being generalissimo was a man known for a very uneasy character, he was a  nobility and among his illustrious military achievements, apart from owning serfs, is (almost) a suppression of Pugachev's peasant uprising. But Soviet Communists somehow decided that not only he (as well as Kutuzov) merited most prized WW II orders named after them, but Soviet Navy had another project 68-Bis light cruiser named after Suvorov. Here she is:

Of course, Soviet Communists continued with this tradition of commissioning ships and naming highest state awards after counts and princes, all those "class enemies" of "proletariat" and owners of serfs. But all that didn't matter--all those noble and very rich people did one thing--they fought for Russia. Nobody cared and cares what their opinions on exploited and suppressed Russian peasants were. Even communists recognized that. The class didn't matter, as long as it was for the greater good. But then again, Russians are so lucky, it is so easy for them--no matter who you are, once Russia was invaded, everything was secondary and the hero, be him a simple peasant or a prince, who could actually own this peasant hero, was and remained a hero. 

Not so, evidently in the US anymore.  

Gen. Milley has weighed in on the subject of military bases whose names are associated with the Confederacy. He also adds some value judgements, presumably his own, regarding Confederate Officers and soldiers: “Like the country it serves, the U.S. military is fighting an internal battle against racism, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley said Thursday, but old names and symbols of that enemy are present and strong enough to sow division. “Divisiveness leads to defeat,” Milley told the House Armed Services Committee. “There is no place in our armed forces … for symbols of racism, bias or discrimination.” The Civil War was an “act of treason,” he said. The south’s military leaders betrayed their nation profoundly, and still, many military installations bear their names, according to Milley. “It was an act of treason at the time against the union, against the stars and stripes, against the U.S. Constitution, and those officers turned their back on their oath.”He goes on to support the removal of Confederate names and presumably symbols from the defence forces.

Alrighty then. Not that I care in particular about Confederacy and I, certainly, have a natural revulsion towards slavery, but still--correct me if I am wrong--the American Civil War was fought not against slavery. The slavery issue came up well into the war itself not least through the actions of one Russian dude who commanded one Yanks' regiment. The war was about states' rights. Right? So it is rather a complicated issue since South just wanted to go its own way. The consensus existed in the US prior to this woke session by Milley today, that a sort of reconciliation was reached on the issue of the Civil War, in the end Robert E. Lee had enough courage to call for reconciliation--not an easy thing to do for a defeated side. Yet, today, in 2020, the events of 160 years ago still cannot let many people rest just because of slavery? Can you imagine Russians disowning Kutuzov or Suvorov for owning serfs? Peter the Great was a bloody tyrant, granted a genius one, should Russians disown him? Russians erect monuments to him. 

A normal person looking at the United States today will be struck by the scale of self-immolation of the country which loves to proclaim itself to be a shining city on the hill. It is shining, all right, with the bright flames of its burning institutions, from military, to academia, to history to governance. But the flame of cowardice burns with blinding white flame and for such a country, which cannot provide for its historic continuity, for better or worse, there is no future. With George Washington, a slave-owner, waiting to be dethroned, his accomplishments be damned, the US will cease to exist as a viable entity both geographically and in spirit which was too weak to fight for own survival. But then again, I warned about that.

It Is Accelerating.

First, I don't buy for a second this utter BS that US military is a-political. This is a type of baloney which makes one sick to the stomach. American political circus is built around "the finest fighting force in history" and US military is tightly woven into the fabric of US body politic. Second, in the last 25 years this military produced zero military figures of note but it sure as hell produced political "operators" who would sell themselves to a highest bidder. Which, of course, didn't prevent US top brass to lose every single campaign. Now this:

So, the guy apologizes for being next to POTUS in the photograph? The cowardice of the American military-political class is astonishing. Frankly, I never saw anything like this in my life. This is how being ungovernable looks like. Collapse of governing more like it. I wrote about US elites being incompetent and cowardly for many years--the events of the past weeks presented us with a manifestation of that. Tucker may lament a cowardice of GOP:

But haven't I told you that the only difference between increasingly insane--they reached eleven--democrats and GOP is the speed with which they will sell you. Democrats do it fast, GOP does it slightly slower. Come on, can you imagine boy Marko Rubio or Ted Cruz taking a leadership in anything? Of course not. The only bright figure in GOP ranks who exhibited a degree of integrity and courage in the last three years is Devin Nunes--boy, those dairy farmers are a tough lot and Devin certainly has a very impressive real life background in doing useful and hard thing. Other than that--it is a collection of self-serving BSers. 

As per this crap about US military being a-political, evidently the issue of subordination, especially to the President of the United States, is not well developed in it and, indeed, one has to think about the future in retirement--what sinecures on what boards of directors of what corporations will be offered and it is so risky for those poor generals and admirals to even think that their country is imploding right now. But then again, US military has no modern tradition of defending own country against aggressors, it primarily wrecks other countries (namely weak ones), so, for many US top brass a real defense is a fuzzy concept. Sure, they never heard about this: 

I, [name], do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God. 

They also still cannot grasp (or, they don't want to) that the United States is in the stage of the implosion of the Constitutional Order and that the enemy is domestic--both bases are covered in their oath. Nope, they worry about what perceptions they create and how those perceptions may harm their careers, present and future. It is a sad, pathetic show seeing a man who is supposed to radiate resolve and firmness to bow to a crowd of hoodlums and media whores. It is forgivable for American politician--a euphemism for corruption and coward, but seeing cadre officer in the highest actual military position to humiliate himself this way is unprecedented. I guess, it is indeed up to citizens to defend the Constitution.