War in Ukraine

Nice of Jake Sullivan to finally allow a course of action that the logisticians have screaming for since summer of 2022. That moron can't find a new job fast enough.

 

Haha. No, I got that part out of the magazine story. I did learn firsthand about the lapel pins while working in the Shanghai area.

Also, when working with a group from central China, I found out why the plant manager was so obviously afraid of the woman in Purchasing: she was on the city or county committee for the party. Great lady, though: she came in every evening before she left the plant and swept our office with a broom. We argued that she was too important to sweep floors, and we would sometimes try to wrestle the broom from her. I think she was just nervous that the project might fail, and wanted everything to go right and make sure we were doing o.k.

 

It seems like it would be a no-brainer to keep a massive stockpile of at least the empty shells for artillery in large warehouses or caverns somewhere. Then when you needed more than what you had on hand, all you had to do is ramp up production of the explosives and fill the shells. It's not like the U.S. changes artillery shell diameter every few years.

 

Because it is best to kill the fox before he gets into the henhouse.

 

What I understood when I looked into this when I was in college was that there was all the money in the world to develop new systems but there is no money(profit)in making the ammunition for the systems.

 

The margins may be smaller, but the volumes are larger. If there was no profit, no one would make ammo.

I would also hazard a guess that the risks are lower with the ammo, since the technology is not cutting-edge.

 

It’s such an uneducated and naive assumption that the only two options are war or complete capitulation to Russia. It is in our best interests if they settle and regardless who wins the election, the settlement is going to happen. What you’re seeing now are greedy warmongers maneuvering for a little more bargaining power at said settlement table. But the cat is out of the bag. If Ukraine were so important, we wouldn’t be debating it in Congress. We would already be there.

 

Well you aren’t going to kill the fox either way are you?

 

I somehow doubt that this will so much as puncture the seemingly impenetrable wall on this thread, but perhaps it will give someone pause

 

$13k - $17k sign on bonus
$4.4k per month

that's big money in Russia and what they are paying to get them there. Wonder if the payments are being made once they get there and if they stop the day you die or if you get paid to the end of the month

Putin's death economy: how fallen soldiers are helping Russia grow (msn.com)

In order to attract the largest number of recruits to the Ukrainian front, Vladimir Putin decided last July to double the monthly salary of contract soldiers. This amount increased from 195,000 to 400,000 rubles (a little over 4,000 euros or 4,400 US dollars), the equivalent of ten times the average salary in Russia.

According to French newspaper ‘Le Monde’, a bonus of 1.2 million rubles (a little over 12,000 euros or 13,300 US dollars) is paid to contract soldiers when they enlist. Enough to attract the youth of a country where the income of a part of the population remains low.Local authorities are involved in the aggressive recruitment campaigns. ‘Euronews’ reported that the Krasnodar region, a major supplier of recruits for the army, has increased the enlistment bonus to the equivalent of €16,000 ($17,700).

 

Our Defense Industrial Base's inability to keep up with demand is not something that we just learned based on what is going on in Ukraine. Hopefully, both political sides can agree that it needs more depth and strength and make that happen.

 

then Ukraine shined enough of a light on it to force someone to pay attention...

 

We can’t even protect the Pentagon from drone swarms. We may look back on this era of proxy wars and our own vulnerabilities as The Great Humbling …

https://www.wsj.com/politics/national-security/drones-military-pentagon-defense-331871f4

 

If the fox (or in this case, the bear) gets wounded badly enough, it will remove itself and go back to its own forest, which is the goal.

 

For a normally very pragmatic poster, the level of ifs and buts were candy and nuts presented above is disconcerting.

The thing that I will agree on is Trump can be unpredictable and he may change his mind on this issue for whatever reason. But for now I’m going to look at what he says and what his policy via Putin has been to gauge where he will be.

 

I don’t blame you. And I agree that the stuff Trump has said with respect to Ukraine is dumb as can be. He has had multiple opportunities to gracefully change his position with new information and hasn’t taken them. In no way am I making excuses for that.

 

So you agree you arent going to kill the fox/bear no matter what, thanks

 

What point do you think you just made? Thanks.