Nuclear projection chatter from the US. They BADLY want Russia to use a nuke. But to what end ? To incite the American people against a Russia ? Americans have seen enough of flag draped coffins coming off of transport planes.
How does anyone “make sure” of anything? You put trusted people in charge to supervise subordinate functional areas for you. But what if the only people you can trust are the ones who will only tell you exactly what you want to hear? What if the only people they allow to advance are the ones who tell them exactly what they want to hear? It’s not like Putin can go verify these things for himself. He wants to see a demonstration of this cutting-edge artillery system, then his generals carefully stage an exercise designed for overwhelming success with all munitions already staged (take logistical incompetence out of the equation), most proficient soldiers operating the systems (take operator error out of the equation), and all targets designed to blow up on command (take risk out of the equation). Putin gets to preen about what a great military he has, and all of his sycophants get to clap each other on the back and retreat back to the dachas for drinking and whoring. Remember, Putin just acts like he was in the military and just acts like he has seen any combat. While his country was fighting in Afghanistan, he was “serving” in East Germany at the equivalent risk a mailman might see. He has read a bunch of books about the military and thinks that makes him a genius of the subject. That’s like me being the most well read on the subject of football and thinking that makes me qualified to coach the Patriots even though I never played a down, never did my time as an assistant coach, etc. Do you think the staff could possibly fool me about the quality of practices? I think they could … right up until we played a game.
Whereas the leader of the free world, the man at the helm of this US proxy war vs Russia, is quite the war hero.
You mean, what if they accidentally left a nuclear warhead on one of them? (shrugs) Would it even work? Better odds that they would just gift Ukraine fissionable material for a bomb of their own. I’d say, Russia has a considerable amount of motivation to check and double-check its warheads.
Sign of Western desperation. Old story. Billy Napier related this to his team during halftime of the Utah game. Russia repurposing some of its older missiles to act as decoys for its newer missiles. US builds $13 billion dollar carriers that are bordering on obsolete. Russia saves mega-bucks on proven equipment ... Ukraine war latest: Russia 'removing nuclear warheads from old missiles' and launching them at Ukraine, MoD says
The U.S. has mild to moderate amounts of corruption within military spending, and we are fairly efficient with our spending. There is always someone who can find an avenue to extract money from the system, often by providing kickbacks in exchange for over-priced equipment or services. The bigger the contract, the bigger the payoff.
I would have to assume that the warhead would need to be armed before it could go off. Firing an unarmed nuclear missile would probably do nothing except crash into something. There are probably specialists required to arm the warhead, so it is unlikely that it is a simple switch that anyone could figure out.
Western nuclear chatter. The dilettantish notion of Russian incompetence persists. It’s purely ideological and not based on substance.
Yes, I agree. It would not be an easy mistake, even for a military who has gooned up a war as badly as Russia has.
Step one: Fabricate and assign to Russia goals and timelines it has never enunciated. Step two: when goals and timelines don’t materialize, pronounce Russia incompetent.
Step three: Prove incompetence by multiple abject failures and "re-arming" Ukraine. Step four: Futilely attempt to spin failures into positive light.
One problem with Ukraine's war efforts: western artillery is getting worn out under heavy usage. At any given time, about a third of Ukraine's western artillery is out of service. I don't know if there is a reliability problem here, a need for quality maintenance work, or something else. The solution seems simple enough--send them more equipment, and set up a service center nearby, like in Poland (which has been done). Artillery Is Breaking in Ukraine. It's Becoming a Problem for the Pentagon. Interesting to see that Ukraine does not abandon equipment that needs maintenance, like Russia typically does.
Gonna be a rough winter for the Russian army. Winter begins to take its toll on Russia's army in Ukraine
Howitzer barrels wearing out from so many rounds fired. Not certain that this level of artillery is smart war or just traditional war. Ukraine is firing so many barrages its artillery pieces are breaking down (msn.com) The war in Ukraine has a rate of artillery shelling not seen in a war since the Korean War. That Intensity is so high that it’s putting a strain on the artillery pieces themselves, with a third out of commission at any point. That’s according to the New York Times, which is reporting that a large portion of the approximately 350 howitzers provided by Western nations to Ukraine — including 142 American M777 howiterzers — are damaged, destroyed or simply breaking down from overuse. Citing multiple U.S. defense officials, the report said that repeated use is wearing down the barrels. The artillery pieces have to be taken out of service and sent to a repair center outside of Ukraine. That facility is in Poland and overseen by European Central Command. Work most generally is on the howitzer barrels, as it's work that can’t be done in the field.
and who is keeping track of all those warheads? What kind of security do they have? fearful of one or more hitting the black market
Beats the heck out of me. The Russian military doesn’t inspire confidence in its professionalism, though, does it?
