Русский корабль - иди нахуй

[Gatorubet 30300]

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/united-states-ready-defend-baltic-allies-defense-secretary-says-2023-02-16/

Just a friendly reminder to Putin that we can’t stop his talking heads on TV from threatening to take the Baltic nations back, but we still will Article 5 your ass if you try.

[MillerEP 30495]

 

[Gatorubet 30300]

12 minutes ago, MillerEP said:

 

Those things are pretty decent tank destroyers. Bunch of good reasons not to send those things in attack mode, including a slow firing rate and non-optimal armor, but the high velocity canon can hit a tank from quite a distance and take it out.  Every little bit helps, and I’m sure they can find a place to hide them defensively and wait for more stupid Russian armor advances.

[MissingInAction 25178]

1 hour ago, Gengs1 said:

Slightly Disagree here, maybe these dudes said fuck getting blow up and let’s stall some, how do we do it, let’s get stuck over there  

Or, and stick with me here, the raccoons have graduated from vodka to fentanyl.

[Bateshorn 9937]

57 minutes ago, Royalfan5 said:

and if we do, I'd prefer at least one of them directly detonated on top of me to wrap it up quickly on my end. 

One of the benefits of living in DC is I won’t have to try my hand at surviving in a post Apocalyptic world.  
I have an old coworker whose joke was “when the nuke sirens go off, Ima a grab a bottle of scotch from the liquor store down the street and just walk towards the White House.  Won’t feel a thing.”

[BabaYaga 15312]

12 minutes ago, Gatorubet said:

Those things are pretty decent tank destroyers. Bunch of good reasons not to send those things in attack mode, including a slow firing rate and non-optimal armor, but the high velocity canon can hit a tank from quite a distance and take it out.  Every little bit helps, and I’m sure they can find a place to hide them defensively and wait for more stupid Russian armor advances.

They're fine for tanks, but in an optimal capacity they are used to support infantry against "softer" targets such as convoys, mechanized support, artillery, and for quick strikes against rear echelon troops.  

[Gatorubet 30300]

3 minutes ago, BabaYaga said:

They're fine for tanks, but in an optimal capacity they are used to support infantry against "softer" targets such as convoys, mechanized support, artillery, and for quick strikes against rear echelon troops.  

I’m glad so many different types are coming to Ukraine, but a dozen of this and a dozen of that has to be a future logistical nightmare.   

[BabaYaga 15312]

1 minute ago, Gatorubet said:

I’m glad so many different types are coming to Ukraine, but a dozen of this and a dozen of that has to be a future logistical nightmare.   

Now we know why NATO standardized rounds across most platforms

105 & 120mm main guns

105 & 155mm artillery

5.56 & 7.62 rifle rounds

List goes on

[ABSR 5323]

2 hours ago, Ghost of LL said:

In the history of modern warfare, I'm not aware of anybody outside of Russia using prisoners for combat operations. 

Do you even Dirty Dozen bro?  It's like we don't even know you anymore.

[MissingInAction 25178]

I have come to a few conclusions based on observations in this thread and elsewhere:

1. Russians are nothing but imbeciles and bullies as a result of purging generations of intellectuals from their population over the past few centuries.

2. Soviet Union wouldn't have been shit without its satellite states Ukraine, Poland, etc

3. They are more likely to nuke themselves than anyone else. I think many underestimate the resources it takes to maintain a functioning nuclear arsenal. From concept to production to maint. to delivery on target. 

Those idiots can't even maintain a functioning delivery truck. 

4. Putin about to get his purge on

5. Georgia should be getting its freak on while it has the chance

6. When it's all said and done Ukraine will emerge as the dominant force, economy, and leader of Europe.

7. Fuck Russia in the babushka ass.

[BabaYaga 15312]

5 minutes ago, MissingInAction said:

1. Russians are nothing but imbeciles and bullies as a result of purging generations of intellectuals from their population over the past few centuries.

 

We are seeing in real time the ROI on the time and money spent on training and supporting the modern, western warfighter.  The time and money spent to help them facilitate the mindset and autonomy to be non-linear thinkers, problem solvers, and proactive decision makers.

This was the central tenet Ambrose was trying to get across in Saving Private Ryan and BOB.  It takes decades and generations to engender this.  

[Chad Fuck 17755]

9 minutes ago, MissingInAction said:

I have come to a few conclusions based on observations in this thread and elsewhere:

1. Russians are nothing but imbeciles and bullies as a result of purging generations of intellectuals from their population over the past few centuries.

2. Soviet Union wouldn't have been shit without its satellite states Ukraine, Poland, etc

3. They are more likely to nuke themselves than anyone else. I think many underestimate the resources it takes to maintain a functioning nuclear arsenal. From concept to production to maint. to delivery on target. 

Those idiots can't even maintain a functioning delivery truck. 

4. Putin about to get his purge on

5. Georgia should be getting its freak on while it has the chance

6. When it's all said and done Ukraine will emerge as the dominant force, economy, and leader of Europe.

7. Fuck Russia in the babushka ass.

4.  Putin's has been getting his purge on for a while.  It reminds me of Stalin's pre-war purging of the army, combined with the first year/year and a half of WWII.  

6. Yes but they'd have to get arms from somewhere and most excess western supply is headed to Ukraine.

7.  Slow your roll.  They're still going to have to rebuild 1/3 to 1/2 of their industry and I'm not sure that I believe throwing out the Russians will cure their own tendency towards corruption.  Germany is still going to be sitting there unaffected by war. 

But the rest, yeah I'm with you.

[MillerEP 30495]

 

[SL Xpress 7518]

1 minute ago, MillerEP said:

 

 

On that note, here's a plaintive cry from PMC Wagner artillery men begging for ammunition. You hate to see it:

 

[DefinitelyNotHollywoodColt 12301]

3 minutes ago, MillerEP said:

 

Attack!!!!

[MissingInAction 25178]

2 minutes ago, Chad Fuck said:

4.  Putin's has been getting his purge on for a while.  It reminds me of Stalin's pre-war purging of the army, combined with the first year/year and a half of WWII.  

6. Yes but they'd have to get arms from somewhere and most excess western supply is headed to Ukraine.

7.  Slow your roll.  They're still going to have to rebuild 1/3 to 1/2 of their industry and I'm not sure that I believe throwing out the Russians will cure their own tendency towards corruption.  Germany is still going to be sitting there unaffected by war. 

But the rest, yeah I'm with you.

I should have clarified re: Ukraine, that 

I'm talking waaayyyy down the road. 

And as far as Putin on the Ritz , I think the purges are about to escalate the closer that cock holster gets to defeat.

[Chad Fuck 17755]

1 minute ago, MissingInAction said:

I should have clarified re: Ukraine, that 

I'm talking waaayyyy down the road. 

And as far as Putin on the Ritz , I think the purges are about to escalate the closer that cock holster gets to defeat.

[Gravy Train 974]

Putin is losing respect in the Kremlin, which leads to more leaders falling down stairwells and out of windows, as they're burdened with the blame or seen as potential opposition threats.  Unfortunately, as more damages mount, the more extreme Putin's response may be, especially once the security of Crimea is threatened:

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/putin-rebellion-russia-ukraine-war-failures-6tw7mrqh0

Quote

In February last year, as President Putin announced his invasion of Ukraine with a chilling televised speech, the Kremlin was so confident of success that the first wave of Russian troops were ordered to pack special uniforms for a victory parade in Kyiv. It did not take long for Putin’s plans to unravel.
Almost a year into the war, tens of thousands of Russian soldiers have been killed, hundreds of thousands of men have fled the country to avoid conscription and some Russian regions bordering Ukraine are coming under almost daily shelling. Over the past two weeks, Russia’s forces have suffered their highest rate of casualties since the war began, according to the British Ministry of Defence.
In place of triumphant speeches in the Ukrainian capital, Putin’s image as a master strategist has been shattered, leaving him arguably weaker than at any time during his 23-year rule. His failure to secure a swift victory has cost him the respect and unquestioning loyalty of top officials, said Gennady Gudkov, a former KGB colonel and ex-Russian MP who lives in exile.
“Putin can’t rule the Kremlin like before. He has made lots of stupid mistakes and everyone from the general staff of the armed forces to the leadership of the FSB [security service] to his close aides understands this,” he said.
“[Officials] are becoming bolder and brasher and infighting has escalated. There is no longer the subordination to Putin that there was a year ago,” said Gudkov, who cited conversations with relatives of Kremlin insiders, aides to political figures in Moscow and unnamed Russian tycoons. “This is a quiet rebellion against him.”
Tatiana Stanovaya, a Russian political analyst whose research focuses on the Kremlin, said that while there was little chance that officials would be brave enough to directly criticise Putin, many were disillusioned by his disastrous handling of the war. “Lots of them used to respect him,” she said. “Not anymore.”

Aside from humiliating reversals on the battlefield, Russia’s economy is also straining under the weight of western sanctions, including a price cap on Russian oil. Last month Russia recorded a budget deficit of 1.76 trillion roubles (about £20 billion), its biggest for January since Putin came to power in 2000. Sanctions have also deprived members of the Russian elite of foreign assets, including property in Europe, while making it much harder for their children to study at prestigious western schools and universities.
Yet Putin remains assured in his belief that he is fulfilling his “historical mission” to bring Kyiv under Moscow’s control, said Fyodor Lukyanov, who heads Russia’s Council for Foreign and Defence Policy, which sometimes advises the Kremlin. The council is not thought to have been consulted about the decision to invade Ukraine, with the key decisions being taken exclusively by Putin and a small group of hardliners.
Despite the setbacks his army has suffered, Putin appeared at ease with himself when he answered questions at a forum in late October, according to Lukyanov, who moderated the discussions. “He was confident and relaxed as never before,” he said. “There was no irritation at all, whatever questions were asked. He seems to be 200 per cent sure that what he is doing and what Russia is doing is necessary and that it was inevitable. That we are on the right side of history, whatever happens.”
Lukyanov also revealed that many Russian politicians were puzzled by why the Kremlin had not retaliated “properly” against the supply of western weapons to Ukraine. Putin warned at the start of the war that western countries that tried to come to Ukraine’s aid would “face consequences greater than any you have faced in history”. He has also threatened to use nuclear weapons to defend occupied territory in Ukraine that Russia claims as its own.

The Kremlin’s nuclear rhetoric was a key factor in the recent decision by a panel of international scientists to move the hands of the Doomsday Clock, which illustrates threats to humanity’s existence, to 90 seconds to midnight, the closest it has been to zero hour since it was established in 1947.
“Russia could have retaliated not just with nuclear arms, but with massive cyberattacks or by targeting supply routes [for western weapons],” Lukyanov said. “The problem is that the longer Russia doesn’t respond, the more likely it is that this response will need to be extremely powerful to demonstrate commitment. That it will use the ultimate argument.”
Suggestions that Putin is being misled by his advisers about the grim realities of the war appeared to be off the mark, Lukyanov added. “He didn’t look like a person who is not aware of what is happening. He looked like he has [correct] information. But this information doesn’t bother him too much.”

Once portrayed by Russian propaganda as a straight-talking man of the people, Putin is an isolated figure. On Orthodox Christmas Eve, he attended mass on his own at a Kremlin cathedral that had been cleared of all other worshippers. In December, he abruptly cancelled his annual press conference and yearly televised question-and-answer session with the Russian people, as well as his state of the nation address to parliament. Critics allege that Putin is reluctant to answer tough questions on the war because he knows he cannot provide meaningful answers.

“A year on, Putin has nothing to reply to the main question: ‘How does he see a way out of the situation he created?’,” Leonid Volkov, the former chief aide to Alexei Navalny, the imprisoned Russia opposition leader, wrote on social media.
“This question is being asked by generals and businessmen: Putin’s entourage does not understand what all these losses and deprivations were for. But Putin has no answer. The silence is deafening. And it will get louder.”
Putin spent much of the pandemic holed up at his residences near Moscow and in Sochi. Visitors were obliged to pass through disinfecting “tunnels” before entry and officials were ordered to quarantine for up to 14 days before they were allowed to meet the president. The self-isolation order is thought to remain: Andrei Bocharov, governor of the Volgograd region, had not been seen in public for almost two weeks before he met Putin this month.
The measures coincide with continuing speculation about Putin’s health. Ukrainian military intelligence told ABC News recently, citing unnamed sources, that the Russian leader was terminally ill with cancer. The Kremlin insists that Putin is in good health but he has been seen limping in public and gripping the sides of tables with his right arm during talks. Before the war, he was reported to have been visited dozens of times by a cancer specialist. He was also thought to take baths of blood from deer antlers, a traditional cure in southern Siberia’s Altai region for a number of ailments. There are fears for Putin’s state of mind. “He is reacting to pictures in his own head,” Gleb Pavlovsky, a former Kremlin adviser, told The Times at the start of the war.
During his televised New Year’s Eve speech, traditionally delivered against a backdrop of the Kremlin, Putin stood instead in front of a line of people in military uniforms. The Kremlin said they were soldiers but at least some were believed to have appeared in public with Putin in the past in other roles, prompting suspicions that they were Kremlin security agents.
One blonde female “soldier” appears to have posed previously as a camper, an ice-cream seller, a fisherwoman and church worshipper during Putin’s public appearances over the past few years.

Putin’s private life remains secret. Officially, he has been single since 2014 when he divorced Lyudmila, a former Aeroflot stewardess. Unofficially, Putin is believed to be in a long-term relationship with Alina Kabaeva, a former Olympic gymnast who was appointed the head of a pro-Kremlin media company in 2014. Kabaeva, 39, has been sanctioned by Britain, the European Union and United States. Last week she described Russian state television as a “weapon of war” that was comparable in its power to the Kalashnikov assault rifle. “Let’s work!” she said at a media event, a pro-war Z symbol pinned to her black business suit.
Putin’s two adult daughters from his marriage to Lyudmila, Maria Vorontsova, 37, and Katerina Tikhonova, 36, were both sanctioned by western countries last year. The Kremlin has never publicly acknowledged their relationship to Putin, but the US said there is evidence that those around them have profited from their status. Tikhonova was previously married to Kirill Shamalov, a businessman whose wealth rocketed after he became Putin’s son-in-law in 2013.

Putin is also believed to have three children with Kabaeva, but their identities have never been confirmed. The Russian leader is also believed to have a teenage daughter named Elizaveta from an affair that he had during his first term of office with Svetlana Krivonogikh, a former cleaner from St Petersburg. Krivonogikh, who became massively wealthy after her relationship with Putin, was sanctioned this month by Britain.
There is little hope that Putin will cut his losses and withdraw from Ukraine, said Stanovaya, the political analyst. Cornered and resentful, he is convinced that he has no choice but to try to crush what he sees as the unacceptable threat to Russia of a pro-Nato government in Kyiv, she said. In Putin’s worldview, the West bears full responsibility for provoking the war and the end of the conflict is only realistically possible, if western countries abandon their support for Ukraine.
“Putin and the Russian elite see this war as existential. If Russia loses, if there are strikes on Crimea, I think that they are psychologically prepared to use nuclear weapons,” Stanovaya said. “Putin thinks that he gave Ukraine too much time to arm itself. He believes now that if he does nothing, Russia will cease to exist in a few years. His only regret is that he didn’t begin the war earlier.”

[Gatorubet 30300]

6 minutes ago, SL Xpress said:

 

On that note, here's a plaintive cry from PMC Wagner artillery men begging for ammunition. You hate to see it:

Sssshhhhhhh Don’t tell Ukraine! 

[Gatorubet 30300]

48 minutes ago, Bateshorn said:

One of the benefits of living in DC is I won’t have to try my hand at surviving in a post Apocalyptic world.  
I have an old coworker whose joke was “when the nuke sirens go off, Ima a grab a bottle of scotch from the liquor store down the street and just walk towards the White House.  Won’t feel a thing.”

New Orleans.    I’m toast. 

[bolverk 29717]

16 minutes ago, MissingInAction said:

I have come to a few conclusions based on observations in this thread and elsewhere:

1. Russians are nothing but imbeciles and bullies as a result of purging generations of intellectuals from their population over the past few centuries.

2. Soviet Union wouldn't have been shit without its satellite states Ukraine, Poland, etc

3. They are more likely to nuke themselves than anyone else. I think many underestimate the resources it takes to maintain a functioning nuclear arsenal. From concept to production to maint. to delivery on target. 

Those idiots can't even maintain a functioning delivery truck. 

4. Putin about to get his purge on

5. Georgia should be getting its freak on while it has the chance

6. When it's all said and done Ukraine will emerge as the dominant force, economy, and leader of Europe.

7. Fuck Russia in the babushka ass.

Pretty sure I've told this story. But, back in 1993, I did a summer abroad program in the recently reunited, former East Germany. It was a group of about 30 of us, staying with local families in a small farming village called Wust near Tangermünde.

Anyway, most weekends we'd hop on a bus to go see some sight. On one of the trips, we were going down a narrow two-lane road when we came upon a long column of Ural trucks parked along the side of the road. When we got to the front, the lead truck had its hood open and a bunch of Russian soldiers was just standing there smoking cigs and looking around helplessly like they had no idea what to do (they still had forces in Germany until 1994).

That was only just a few years after the fall of the Soviet Union, and it was utterly apparent that they were completely broken as a force. Of course, that was my never-having-served-in-the-military impression as a 22yo, cocky Texan, but it really struck me that maybe we'd been overestimating them a tad during my formative years.

[SL Xpress 7518]

16 minutes ago, Gravy Train said:

Putin is losing respect in the Kremlin, which leads to more leaders falling down stairwells and out of windows, as they're burdened with the blame or seen as potential opposition threats.  Unfortunately, as more damages mount, the more extreme Putin's response may be, especially once the security of Crimea is threatened:

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/putin-rebellion-russia-ukraine-war-failures-6tw7mrqh0

I loved the article. Thanks for posting.

That said, "...and some Russian regions bordering Ukraine are coming under almost daily shelling." 

Wut?

[MissingInAction 25178]

17 minutes ago, Gatorubet said:

Sssshhhhhhh Don’t tell Ukraine! 

Yea I'm no master strategist, but I'm thinking that announcing your lack of ammunition from your base to the world is counter productive.

[RDCanecutter 26468]

31 minutes ago, SL Xpress said:

 

On that note, here's a plaintive cry from PMC Wagner artillery men begging for ammunition. You hate to see it:

 

Sounds like they're baiting the Ukrainians to attack.

[Orange&White 5539]

Just now, RDCanecutter said:

Sounds like they're baiting the Ukrainians to attack.

Could be. 
 

But Occam’s Razor tells me they are just stupid.

[SquishMitten 10429]

2 hours ago, Ghost of LL said:

That's ridiculous.  A hundred warheads wouldn't destroy the United States.

A hundred warheads would really fuck our shit up.  It would take months to restore basic things like electricity.  And it would take years to return to some semblance of normality, although now "normal" is life without New York and Chicago and the fucking Packers winning the Super Bowl every year?

But the United States wouldn't be "destroyed."  Much less the entire world.

I don't know man. I said I just went with the first numbers I saw from a quick google search. Looking again, I still don't know what the answer actually is. Obviously 100 wouldn't kill every person on the planet immediately, but the fallout and other effects globally from that many bombs would keep killing for a very long time.

[Gatorubet 30300]

4 minutes ago, RDCanecutter said:

Sounds like they're baiting the Ukrainians to attack.

[Gatorubet 30300]

“I’ll be here until they retake Crimea.  Don’t forget to tip the waitress.”

[Schulz2.0 29011]

Are you guys saying you don't want to go into my sex dungeon... uh, I mean fallout shelter?

[cactusflinthead 27601]

It's still logistics and basic needs getting through. 

@MissingInAction says they can't keep a truck running

And then @bolverk cited some anecdotal evidence. 

Then a quote about Wagner getting shorted on ammunition and I remembered that scene of the UKR guy in a trench standing on several inches of brass.

Only one in ten tanks were ready to go from storage at the first call for back up. I don't expect it has gotten better.

[SquishMitten 10429]

3 hours ago, BamaATL said:

That is true, it would still constitute a very destructive force.  However, in order to have a deterrent, you can't use them all.  Now would constitute a deterrent. I have no idea, but that does invariably limit what they could use in a purely offensive way.  

No. In order to have a deterrent, they can't let anybody find out they used them all.

[morehornsepower 887]

44 minutes ago, SquishMitten said:

I don't know man. I said I just went with the first numbers I saw from a quick google search. Looking again, I still don't know what the answer actually is. Obviously 100 wouldn't kill every person on the planet immediately, but the fallout and other effects globally from that many bombs would keep killing for a very long time.

Yeah, this conversation led me down a deep rabbit hole. 100 warheads would create a worldwide disaster.  A nasty spiral of death, nuclear autumn/winter, starvation, and chaos.  Would the US society collapse...?  I'd say there would be a high likelihood as time went by.

And I'm sure if Russia launched 1000 and only 100 actually hit/detonated, we would still send 1000+ back their way - and ours (we are assuming) would be a little more reliable.  1000 warheads detonating across the world would be a much worse scenario.

 

But, regardless, we simply can't let Russia hold the world hostage with this threat.  They cannot be allowed to trample their neighbors with impunity simply because they are a nuclear power.  If they are allowed to do that, then the unrest in a world like that would still lead us to that all-out war, eventually.

Edited February 16, 2023 by morehornsepower
clarity...?

[BamaATL 16593]

21 minutes ago, SquishMitten said:

No. In order to have a deterrent, they can't let anybody find out they used them all.

That is true, but it makes a significant assumption; that we don't already know.  Sure you could bluff if no one has any idea as to what you already have.  However, that simply isn't the case in this instance.  Until I think 2019, the russians participated in IAEA regular inspections, and while you don't exactly get to look under the hood in those, inspectors would could a sense of realistic capability, even if they are lying; which they would be.  Additionally, in culture so rife with corruption, I think its a reasonable assertion that bribery in exchange for information is fairly commonplace.  

The other part of this that someone else mentioned I think is important to consider is that its likely very few people in even russia actually know the real capability and readiness.  Considering that overall theft of the state budget has been part of putin's russia, and putins personal agenda, it makes sense that he would compartmentalize spending and only a very small few would even have an idea.  If anyone asks, the answer probably is, "Don't worry comrade, putin is personally overseeing that.", end of conversation (not that many would have the balls to ask).   

The conclusion I arrive at (and this is just me), is that when they saber rattle, it's done so for public consumption in the west; in the hopes that the fear associated with the threat (real or perceived), is enough to put pressure on western decisions.  

But then again, I've been wrong plenty of times before; and it's unlikely that I will stop being wrong any time soon.  

[MissingInAction 25178]

If we see pOoty tang strutting around in a green turban, then it's time for concern.

[MillerEP 30495]

 

[The Dog 44138]

 

[cactusflinthead 27601]

Damn

After a long look down the abyss of nuclear apocalypse y'all need an antidepressant.

Here. You can't understand a word she says, but you are going to have a hard time not grinning.

 

[statsman 5478]

We’re talking hydrogen bombs, right? If I had a hundred, I would target the100 busiest ports. (Ha-ha! I initially typed “poets” instead of “ports”. I’ll let you decide which is the greater loss). 

[SL Xpress 7518]

6 minutes ago, cactusflinthead said:

Damn

After a long look down the abyss of nuclear apocalypse y'all need an antidepressant.

Here. You can't understand a word she says, but you are going to have a hard time not grinning.

I can't get the sound to come on, much to my chagrin.

But she's adorable.

Edited February 16, 2023 by SL Xpress

[Gatorubet 30300]

17 minutes ago, The Dog said:

 

Quote

The holders of political power in Russia today are the siloviki (sometimes called “securocrats” by political scientists). These are the people who work for, or who used to work for, the silovye ministerstva-literally “the ministries of force”-charged with wielding coercion and violence in the name of the state. Since Vladimir Putin’s rise to power at the end of the 1990s, siloviki have spread to posts throughout all the branches of power in Russia. The current regime is a “hard” authoritarian regime shading toward a “soft” dictatorship. For ordinary Russian citizens, this means the presence of some tangible level of personal freedoms, but a nearly complete absence of any substantive political rights, a seriously reduced scope for the exercise of civil liberties, and significant limits to one’s personal security.

Learn something every day. 

[Nivek 16982]

3 hours ago, Royalfan5 said:

and if we do, I'd prefer at least one of them directly detonated on top of me to wrap it up quickly on my end. 

Not to be callous, but I would prefer all of them to detonate directly on top of you and definitely not College Station where we hold all of our military secrets and intellectuals who could easily rebuild society.   I hear this is where the United States, France, and United Kingdom also store all different crop seeds for the purpose of restarting agriculture as well.   If College Station were nuked 5000 times, the damage to western civilization would be immense and much more devastating to western liberal democracies than a differential distributed attack seeking out ports and various other things which could be easily replaced and repurposed.  Definitely hope they do not nuke College Station, the rest of the world would need to look somewhere else for leadership.   

[Gatorubet 30300]

1 hour ago, Gatorubet said:

Mein Gott! Not 40s and 50’s!!!!!  We’ll leave NATO!!

[The Dog 44138]

 

[Schulz2.0 29011]

 

[MillerEP 30495]

 

[Gatorubet 30300]

A page or so back there was an article that 30% of Russian troops in hospital were there due to various frostbite and cold weather maladies.  Due to Twitter’s limited word space it is a 20 part tweet, but only a few minutes of reading.   it describes the cluster fuck origin of the poor winter clothing, and the typically corrupt method they used to “solve” the problem after sacking three generals.

 

[Gravy Train 974]

 

[SL Xpress 7518]

5 minutes ago, Gatorubet said:

A page or so back there was an article that 30% of Russian troops in hospital were there due to various frostbite and cold weather maladies.  Due to Twitter’s limited word space it is a 20 part tweet, but only a few minutes of reading.   it describes the cluster fuck origin of the poor winter clothing, and the typically corrupt method they used to “solve” the problem after sacking three generals.

 

I think it was one of Perun's slideshows that talked about how we measure Shoigu with some of the wrong metrics. Since he's in charge of the military, we measure him by his effectiveness at running the military, when in many ways he should be measured by his effectiveness in staying in power with no real military experience while his rivals exit out windows. 

In other words, people keep screaming about his incompetence, but he's plenty competent. The problem is that the Russian system rewards competence in areas that are not actually reflected in productivity or effectiveness. 

[956 Worldwide 34752]

2 hours ago, SquishMitten said:

I don't know man. I said I just went with the first numbers I saw from a quick google search. Looking again, I still don't know what the answer actually is. Obviously 100 wouldn't kill every person on the planet immediately, but the fallout and other effects globally from that many bombs would keep killing for a very long time.

A 100 warhead strike on the U.S. (that much would be a combo of counterforce and counter value) would be close to a civilization as we know ending event for the country, if not North America even without the environmental long-term effects. 
 

You can’t just multiply out the number of victims from Hiroshima, come up with 10 million or so, and say “we can bounce back.” Shit gets awful real fast. For instance, one 15 kiloton bomb in Manhattan likely kills about 200,000 people on site and maybe half a million injured. 15 kilotons is small, on par with the Hiroshima and Nagasaki blasts, here’s what 800 kilotons would do:

https://thebulletin.org/2015/02/what-would-happen-if-an-800-kiloton-nuclear-warhead-detonated-above-midtown-manhattan/amp/

But let’s say 15 kilotons. If one bomb goes off, then immediately help begins to stream in from Philadelphia, Washington, Baltimore, Boston. Except in this scenario, all those cities also just got hit and are dealing with their own issues. It is that way across the country and it’s worse than it seems because the best equipped and staffed emergency responders will be the ones either blown up or dealing with an immediate crisis. 
 

Law and order and security will collapse. We can assume that the military and National Guards are basically non-functional beyond small surviving units that can respond. Certainly no coordination. Every major police and fire service will be mostly non-functional and completely overwhelmed. Beyond basic command and control of our own strategic arsenal, the federal government will no longer exist because Washington and all field offices will be destroyed and most of the people in them dead. Most state governments will be gone as well, as will the major counties and municipalities. 
 

Needless to say, your job is gone. Nothing will be delivered to your city— any supply chain beyond a few miles will not exist anymore.  The stock market won’t crash, it simply won’t exist and neither will just about any company that was there in any meaningful sense.  Any area that is not destroyed will be overwhelmed with refugees, as will Mexico and Canada.

 

On a law and order and government functionality scale, we’d basically be pre-Taliban, post-Soviet war Afghanistan and that’s not even talking about all the dead people and environmental damage.

[atomheartbevo 89787]

2 hours ago, cactusflinthead said:

It's still logistics and basic needs getting through. 

@MissingInAction says they can't keep a truck running

And then @bolverk cited some anecdotal evidence. 

Then a quote about Wagner getting shorted on ammunition and I remembered that scene of the UKR guy in a trench standing on several inches of brass.

Only one in ten tanks were ready to go from storage at the first call for back up. I don't expect it has gotten better.

It's all reinforced by the cluster fuck 40-mile long convoy (that was only 60 miles inside the border of Ukraine) north of Kyiv.

Back at that long ago time (earlier last year), that Russian army was still operating with somewhat "professional" soldiers (in that they were trained) - they didn't have the mobilized conscripts who had been walking the streets of Bumfuck, Siberia a few weeks before finding themselves in Ukraine. They weren't using prisoners in a PMC.  The only "conscripts" they had were the ones doing their mandatory year-long service (and at that point of the year, they were the stop-lossed soldiers who had been nearing their one year term). They had NCOs who had actually been in for a year (or more) and somewhat experienced junior and mid-level officers.  They had plenty of officers and NCOs who had experience in Syria.    

In short, in the first half of last year, they had an army that should have been able to keep a simple convoy rolling with fuel and food.

But they couldn't even do that.