Absolutely Misplaced.

I am talking about professional criteria (which my today's video is about). 

WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump stunned the Pentagon and the broader defense world by nominating Fox News host Pete Hegseth to serve as his defense secretary, tapping someone largely inexperienced and untested on the global stage to take over the world's largest and most powerful military. The news was met with bewilderment and worry among many in Washington as Trump passed on a number of established national security heavy-hitters and chose an Army National Guard major well known in conservative circles as a co-host of Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends Weekend.” While some Republican lawmakers had a muted response to the announcement, others called his combat experience an asset or said he was “tremendously capable.” Hegseth's choice could bring sweeping changes to the military. He has made it clear on his show and in interviews that, like Trump, he is opposed to “woke” programs that promote equity and inclusion. He also has questioned the role of women in combat and advocated pardoning service members charged with war crimes.

His combat experience in Afghanistan is irrelevant within the framework of global balance of power and to "tame" Pentagon one needs a huge expertise in procurement and R&D, which automatically disqualifies Hegseth on this merit alone. It is all fine and dandy to command a company, but many people forget that USMA at West Point USED TO BE (not anymore) a good engineering school first and foremost. I'll give you a mental experiment... Take an aging fart like me and put me in charge of the staff of, say, coastal missile systems (Bastions), restore my clearance and give me a month or two in the formation, without unnecessary humbleness--I will be able to run it and provide for acceptable combat readiness. Get my aging ass to some missile corvette--same shit, after a month or two I will be able to command it or to become COS of the brigade of such ships. I will be able to do it because I have fundamental military-engineering background which is a MUST for such tasks. Hegseth has degree in... Politics. Now imagine this guy taking on utterly corrupt R&D and procurement policies of Washington. I don't think so. 

And then, of course, there is SMO, Russia and 21st century battlefield, which was utterly absent in Iraq and Afghanistan. But then again, Lisa Franchetti has degree in journalism and in business from the on-line college. She is CNO (Chief of Naval Operations)--Chester Nimitz and Elmo Zumwalt are spinning in their graves. Let me remind WHO was the guy behind stunning technological development and industry reorganization in Russian Armed Forces. Compare: 

Yury Borisov was born on 31 December 1956 in Vyshny Volochyok. He graduated from Kalinin Suvorov Military School [ru] in 1974 and from Radioelectronics Higher Command School in 1978. In 1980s he studied mathematics at the Faculty of Computational Mathematics and Cybernetics of Moscow State University from which he graduated in 1985. Borisov is married and has two children. For 20 years from 1978 to 1998 he was enlisted into the Armed Forces of both the Soviet Union and Russia. He was Federal Agency on Industry deputy head in October 2007 and became Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade in July 2008. He was a Military-Industrial Commissioner for Russia in March 2011 and as of 12 November 2012 under Presidential Decree, Borisov was promoted to Deputy Minister of Defence of the Russian Federation.

That's the caliber of people and their competencies one needs to change things. No additional comments are necessary...

Beauty All Around.

Be that Su-57 flown by Sergei Bogdan or Chinese beauty next to him. Russia signed first export contracts for Su-57. 

Garland, Scott And Yours Truly...

 At 9:00 PM EST (6:00 PM PDT) live. 

 

I Can Tell You Upfront...

... that Trump's new national security advisor Mike Waltz who is described in these terms:

"Mike is the first Green Beret to have been elected to Congress, and previously served in the White House and Pentagon," Trump said in a statement announcing his latest cabinet pick. "Mike served in the Army Special Forces for 27 years where he was deployed multiple times in combat for which he was awarded four Bronze Stars, including two with Valor." "Mike retired as a Colonel, and is a nationally recognized leader in National Security, a bestselling author, and an expert on the threats posed by China, Russia, Iran, and global terrorism," the statement added. "He serves as a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee, the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Mike is a distinguished graduate with honors of the Virginia Military Institute. Mike has been a strong champion of my America First Foreign Policy agenda, and will be a tremendous champion of our pursuit of Peace through Strength!"

Is not an expert "on the threats posed by China, Russia,  Iran and global terrorism" and especially on Russia, because there are about zero people for the least 20+ years in both House Armed Services and House Foreign Affairs Committees who have any clue about the world outside and the modern warfare. He cannot be an expert, considering his alleged support for a delusional and utterly obsolete concept of "Peace Through Strength" for the United States. Waltz worked for Donald Rumsfeld--the guy who failed miserably in his understanding of the warfare and applied geopolitics. TOE of the US Armed Forces is a testament to the views of these people, not that anyone else would have fared better by screwing US doctrinal development so profoundly. Somebody has to tell the guy that "Strength" based on TOE from 1990s is not strength.

I had a very tenuous hope for Trump calling on Colonel Douglas Macgregor for the position of National Security Adviser, well ... we all knew what was coming, didn't we. Waltz is a "specialist" in high intensity police operations in Afghanistan, wow ... Degree in "International Relations" from VMI kinda gets you some ideas. So, the "special forces" guy with zero understanding of technological and economic drivers of the modern war will be a classic US gung ho "advising" Trump. Well, looks like we exchanged one set of neocons for another. Ah, well ... the more things change, the more they stay the same.  Next in line is a chores boy for Adelson's family Marco Rubio ...

Urgent! Popcorn Needed In Large Volumes.

Otherwise, how can one take this cretin seriously. 

The former prime minister also pointed to the prospect of the US cutting aid to Kiev as a potential risk, claiming some people with “wrong” views on the issue were in president-elect Donald Trump’s inner circle. “Donald Trump has lots of different voices in his ears and there’s a front of the Republican Party, quite a lot of them actually, who take the wrong line on Ukraine,” he said. If aid to Ukraine is reduced and Kiev starts losing, London could be forced to deploy troops to the region, Johnson claimed. “We will then have to pay to send British troops to help defend Ukraine,” the politician stated.

I know, he is not the brightest of already dim lot, but if any professionals are left in the UK Ministry of Defense, they have to tell him to stop parading UK in the front of the whole world as a joke. It has been humiliated enough already, especially its, quoting Douglas Macgregor (not to be accused of anti-British bias) lilliputian armed forces which will fail to defend Wembley Stadium, not to speak of whatever this moron wants to defend in 404. It shows, degree in Classicism (yep, that's BoJo's background) and belonging to all kinds of self-proclaimed "elite' clubs in London one statesman makes not. 

Meanwhile Russian Armed Forces methodically eradicate whatever is left of Kiev's air defense ... 

And continue to break through VSU lines ... everywhere. Russians are near the center of Kurakhovo, which in itself is being surrounded (nice cauldron is forming), Zaporozhie Front is on the move, and Russians are already inside Kupyansk. BoJo needs to think really fast how many ... dozens of brave British warriors he wants to send to 404. I am sure he can assess required force really easy, after all--he knows how ancient classic civilizations fought, right? 

How Do You Know They Lost.

They turn into petulant kindergarten children. Such as Admiral Rob Bauer--the man has no self-respect and, obviously, is an amateur for the real warfare of the 21st century. Pathetic. 

 

Mikhail Kovalchuk Interview.

A very important interview to Ria. Who is Mikhail Kovalchuk? He is the President of the National Research Center Kurchatov Institute. Who is Igor Kurchatov? Well, he is the father of the Soviet A-bomb. So, you do understand now how immensely important this Institute is for fundamental science and national security of Russia. Here is its President talking.

Россия перестала "оплодотворять" мир мозгами — ученые из других стран теперь сами едут к нам за открывающимися возможностями, говорит президент Национального исследовательского центра "Курчатовский институт" Михаил Ковальчук. В интервью РИА Новости он рассказал, в каких сферах российская наука сохраняет лидерство, как ЦЕРН охотится за российскими физиками, от которых сам же избавлялся, чем Курчатовский помогает СВО, почему нашей стране так важно развивать свою технологическую повестку, а также поделился планами по освоению Луны и созданию атомного подледного газовоза и объяснил, зачем Курчатовскому институту заниматься виноделием. Беседовали Владимир Сычев и Диляра Солнцева.

Translation: Russia has stopped "fertilizing" the world with its brains - scientists from other countries now come to us for the opportunities that are opening up, says Mikhail Kovalchuk, president of the National Research Center "Kurchatov Institute". In an interview with RIA Novosti, he told us in which areas Russian science retains its leadership, how CERN hunts for Russian physicists, whom it itself got rid of, how Kurchatov helps SVO, why it is so important for our country to develop its own technological agenda, and also shared plans for the exploration of the Moon and the creation of a nuclear-powered subglacial gas carrier, and explained why the Kurchatov Institute should engage in winemaking. Interviewed by Vladimir Sychev and Dilyara Solntseva. 

Read the whole thing (Google Translate will do) and pay attention not only to the arrogance of Europeans, but to this thing: 

They really do work on this monster--360 meters long and 180,000 tons of displacement. Well, this is not new, there were some propositions for converting legendary monsters of pr. 941 Akula (not Typhoon--it is NATO designation) into liquid gas carriers.

 

The problem--one has to have fully autonomous (robot) nuclear reactor. They do work on it.  So, read the interview and you will get some ideas.