About This "Revelation Mode"...

... of which I wrote on many occasions.  Such as four years ago, or even earlier. This is not some Russian rah-rah, but cold hard facts which manifest itself also on the practical battlefield of the largest combined arms clash of the century. 

МОСКВА, 15 апр — РИА Новости. В России разработали систему радиоэлектронной борьбы, способную подавлять космические аппараты на геостационарной орбите, рассказал РИА Новости информированный источник по случаю Дня специалиста РЭБ. "Это (геостационарная орбита. — Прим. ред.) примерно 36 тысяч километров над уровнем моря", — заявил собеседник агентства. Источник не раскрыл детали о новой системе, но сообщил, что "мощность ее излучателей на малой дальности позволяет не только подавлять, но и безвозвратно выводить из строя электронику противника". 

Translation: MOSCOW, April 15 - RIA Novosti. Russia has developed an electronic warfare system capable of suppressing spacecraft in geostationary orbit, an informed source told RIA Novosti on the occasion of the EW Specialist Day. "This (geostationary orbit. - Approx. ed.) is approximately 36 thousand kilometers above sea level," the source said. The source did not disclose details about the new system, but said that "the power of its emitters at short range allows not only to suppress, but also to permanently disable enemy electronics."

 

In layman's lingo it means something new altogether, and the fact that this thing can literally burn enemy electronics at a shorter distance means an upcoming revolution in EW and this is a very bad news for NATO and for military use of commercial satellites (Starlink, wink, wink). Make your own conclusion and remember that I went on record that the West lost the arms race long before SMO. In fact, after 2018 it all became clear. Just to remind you. 

In the end, I did predict it. Allow me to be smug for an instance--I am just a human and once in a while it is so pleasant to achieve the mode "I Told You So". 

In related news:

The German government is calling for EU sanctions on Russia's nuclear industry as the Kremlin's war on Ukraine rages on. It is evident that Russia was deliberately using dependencies in the energy sector as a means of exerting pressure, Economics Minister Robert Habeck told dpa. "The German government has therefore now spoken out to the European Commission in favour of including the civilian nuclear sector. This should be part of the next sanctions package." Russia supplies uranium for nuclear fuel rods and stores radioactive waste on its territory, among other areas of activity. It is necessary to become more independent of Russia throughout the EU, Habeck said. "We have already come a long way in many areas, including energy. The nuclear sector is still open," he said. He said it was unjustifiable that the sector was still being given preferential treatment. "Nuclear technology is an extremely sensitive area, and Russia can no longer be considered a reliable partner here."

The speed with which Germany implements Morgenthau Plan on herself is amazing. This wreck of a country decided to shut down its last three nuclear power plants and now thinks that it can impose anything on Russia. I am on record, again, Russian economy is much larger (and I mean much) than German one and it operates on a completely different bases than that of Germany. Germany's (and Europe's) largest corporation, Siemens, learned the hard way about its grossly exaggerated importance for Russia first with turbines affair in Crimea and now losing juicy contract to Transmasholding in India. Per Rosatom, Herr Habeck should learn first about it. But don't hold your breath. Somebody should explain to Berlin what it means that German tanks begin to burn on Russian soil again.

My, My, My...

 ...Western press-whores are up in arms this morning. They reacted to this (in Russian) news from Ria about UVZ (legendary Ural Vagon Zavod) delivering yet another batch of T-90M Proryv tanks to Russian Army and they immediately  went out on the BS spree with speculating:

Russia’s T-90M Proryv: Will Putin Send His New Tank to Fight in Ukraine?

This click-bait BS was spread by the 1945.com portal which specializes in a palliative therapy for some America's military exceptionalists and basement military porn masturbators from the Top Gun: Maverick community, who have been shown how adults fight real wars, and now they experience a serious butt-hurt. As most from US media, those people have a serious case of amnesia, because, in accordance to these very same US media, glorious VSU already captured this very T-90M last year:

Don’t Tell Putin: Ukraine Captured Russia’s Elite T-90M Tank

This kinda negates the question of if Putin will send these tanks to 404, doesn't it, because evidently, they are already there. But then again, these are Western "military analysis" resources and they need money too, so, they sell BS, and it sells. But, in the end, why such an attention to this tank. 

Well, T-90M IS a deep modification of a venerable, still good, though, T-90A and it even looks differently, carrying even some elements of a dynamic armor Afghanit which is also used by T-14 Armata. 

Or from the above: 

As you can see--it is a classic Russian tank, low profile, sleek and lighter than any modern Western counterpart. Whilst all kinds of military porn fanboys discuss this tank's newest multipurpose sight and other things of this nature, apart from purely physical improvements, it is the Combat Management System "Kalina" which is most important in it.

Being Combat Management System, "Kalina" unifies all operations of this tank, including latest ballistic computer and target acquisition and firing solution contour (laser-range finder, FLIR, on-board sensors, including detection of the "incoming", etc.), it is this feature which really matters--taken from Russian sources:

блок боевой информационно-управляющей системы тактического звена,

программно-технический комплекс тактического взаимодействия танкового/мотострелкового батальона

Translation: Block of the Combat Informational Control System of the Tactical Level and Software-Hardware Complex of Tactical Interaction of the Tank/Motor-rifle Battalion. 

A-ha, that's warmer. In other words--T-90M is a fully netcentric warfare tank and each of these tanks in battalion can run this whole battalion's combat tasks, which is 31 tank in tank battalion, or a truck load of APCs in a motor-rifle one. That is why so much attention to this rather routine news (Russian military factories work 24/7/365) from Western punditry, who, by the virtue of spewing BS on this news, betray own case of being sore losers, because, in accordance to their "sources", Russians are backward people who cannibalize washing machines for microchips and do not know what indoor plumbing is--yes, this is what majority of population of 404 thinks, and so do people from all other Western propaganda outhouses. 

In conclusion. Although in Russian, but take a look at what Russia produces today, among very many other things, courtesy of this teeny-weeny corporation called Rosatom. 

Extremely advanced methods in nuclear medicine. I guess many washing machines have been cannibalized, right?

A Chronic Illness.

It seems incurable in the US. I was reading Kunstler's predictions (I don't make "predictions"--it is a silly business) today and bang, here it was: 

Russia is not our economic rival. Vast as its land-mass is, Russia’s economy is not much bigger than the economy of Texas. 

Ahh, no.  In one phrase, immediately, two major mistakes which are so symptomatic of the America's mental health this very same James Kunstler writes about:

Of course, this matter has even greater significance for correcting the meta-problem of America chronically lying to itself. RussiaGate and its spinoffs was such a gargantuan edifice of malicious dishonesty that it must be deconstructed in the courts, or the mental health of the nation may not recover.

Getting their numbers straight could be a good start. In fact, let's take a look at numbers. 

1. Will start with this tired thesis of Texas' economy being either larger or the size of Russia's economy. The brief look at the size of the Texas economy reveals, based on US government data, that its GDP was in 2018 $1.803 trillion.  Mind you, with Texas (as is the case with the US), does NOT have PPP index because it doesn't exist for the US or, rather, equals its nominal GDP which is denominated in US Dollars for global economy--a travesty of unimaginable scale. But still. This is not to mention the fact that out of those 1.8 trillion, huge chunk is "contained" in well known to us "industries" such as FIRE and other unspecified services. 

Go figure. Of course, Kunstler forgets another teeny-weeny fact, that Texas is an organic part of the US economy at large, and no matter how large Texan egos are, Texas without the United States will be immediately reduced, if viewed as a separate nation (well, they think themselves there in Texas), to a rather economically insignificant entity whose economy will immediately lose core industries required for the United States as a nation--how about aerospace? You get my drift. 

Now, we, of course, have to get to this damn Russia which not only produces practically everything on her own, but has an economy which ranked 5th ( I propose, and I have the argument, that it is 4th) globally and its actual size in accordance to IMF--another belch of a dysfunctional American financial voodoo system, well, judge for yourself, for 2019:

So, Russian actual economy dwarfs that of Texas, plus, which comes as an insult to injury for Texas, Russia produces things which Texas doesn't, and if taken as a separate "economy" will never be able to produce. Texas will never be able to produce within, let alone without, the United States nuclear icebreakers, space vehicles, whole spectrum of aviation from combat to commercial, to...Ah, here comes this second thesis by Kunstler:

2. Russia is "not economic rival" for the US. It is NOT black and white, because there are few critical fields in which Russia is not only a full fledged rival for the US, but actually THE ONLY competitor. I, of course, may start with this trivial puny hydrocarbons issue, which is also partially in the foundation of US non-stop economic sanctions on Russia, because Russia is clear and present danger to only one resource the United States needs desperately to export to EU and this is natural gas. In fact, what we observe currently is America's full blown economic warfare against Russia (and EU) precisely because Russia's massive hydrocarbons industry which is not only immensely competitive with the American one, but, actually, threatens US "plan" for EU. 

Then, of course, comes nuclear energy field, but here US nuclear energy is simply not competitor to a monster of Rosatom and its gigantic portfolio (from Rosatom 2018 report). 

And then come weapons... Here, not only Russia is not just "economic rival", she is a clear and present danger for the US. For a simple reason, she produces a spectrum of weapons systems Texas (even integrated into the US economy) will not be able to produce, especially from concept to R&D to a full manufacturing cycle. And then, of course, Russia offers weapon systems which the United States (let alone Texas) simply do not have. I do not like SIPRI (they are very questionable source of data) but even this dated (2017 chart) shows who real bosses in the global arms trade are. 

I omit here, of course, quality of weapon systems and in terms of cruise missiles, air-defense systems and combat aircraft, to name a few segments, US is losing ground pretty fast. 

So, is Russia economic rival to the United States? Oh, yes, she is. Especially when one peels off layer after layer of the American financial BS which passes as a GDP and faces a rather not that huge (large still) actual GDP, or, let's put it this way, value US real economy produces. In the end, this significant piece of news shouldn't have escaped Kunstler's attention, because it is yet another confirmation of upcoming Discretionary Spending crunch in the US of which so many people warned for years.

WASHINGTON – The Department of Defense has sent a plan to the White House that would cut the construction of more than 40 percent of its planed Flight III Arleigh Burke destroyers in in fiscal years 2021 through 2025.In total, the proposal would cut five of the 12 DDGs planned through the so-called future years defense program, or FYDP. In total, the plan would cut about $9.4 billion, or 8 percent, out of the total shipbuilding budget, according to a memo from the White House’s Office of Management and Budget to the Defense Department obtained by Defense News. The memo also outlined plans to accelerate the decommissioning cruisers, cutting the total number of Ticonderoga-class cruisers in the fleet down to nine by 2025, from a planned 13 in last year’s budget.The Pentagon’s plan would actually shrink the size of the fleet from today’s fleet of 293 ships to 287 ships

All this is not just the realization of the dramatic change in the warfare, which I termed a Real Revolution in Military Affairs, with massive tactical, operational and strategic ramifications, but also the fact that current military spending by the US is NOT sustainable, especially for a minuscule amount of bang for a buck US military was getting in the last couple of decades.  

These points which I outlined in this post are the main reasons for the United States initiating a Cold War 2.0 with Russia, which American elites always viewed in XX and XXI centuries as a threat and the only viable and capable impediment for their plans on global domination. Hence mental breakdown. Russians are keenly aware of what is going on with America and, as I pointed out earlier this year Russians can relate, as Irina Alksnis so brilliantly encapsulated:

However, to hear this simple advice--not to mention  following it--the United States need to stop, at least for an instance, and silence themselves. To stop shaking air with statements, declarations, demands, and threats, which come across as either strange, or outright silly because of their obvious inability to ever become a reality. But it is precisely, it seems, what the US is not capable of doing. As a result--the continuation of never-ending declaratory carousel: Moscow, Assad must go! Russians, we will provide for freedom of navigation in Kerch Strait! Russians, we will punish you for support of Maduro. But the most insulting for Americans is that only Russia can understand them. Because we remember the pain behind those words.